The Tunnel
by iceskater7
Summary: Itex teams up with a new company called TDI to create the most dangerous weapon known to mankind. Max and her flock cant beat them on their own. Then they meet a group of kids who call themselves the Tunnel Guards. But even with their help can they win?
1. Prologue

**Hey, this is my first attempt at a story, so please review and tell me what you think. **

**Prologue**

Jeb Batchelder glares at his new boss, Daniel Artino. "You can't do that." He says angrily. "It will kill everyone! There won't be anyone left!"

Daniel laughs harshly. "Jeb, you've known this was going to happen from the moment the flock was created. It's happening whether you like it or not."

Jeb looks up at him from his seat in Daniel's office. "They won't let it happen, Daniel, you know they won't. They've stopped Itex before, and they'll stop it again, no matter what you do. They'll fix it, and you know it."

Daniel frowns and walks over, closer to the man who he had once thought of to be a faithful colleague. "Jeb," he says smoothly, "things are changing. The flock will be betrayed. They will _not _be able to fix what we are going to do."

"Then they'll stop you before you have a chance to do it. If they can't do it alone, then the Tunnel Guards will help them." Jeb informs the new leader of Itex with anger and irritation in his voice.

He stands up and looks out the window of the office and watched the drones being programmed in the programming lab. He couldn't help but hope the flock could fix this. If they couldn't, everything will go down. There was no one else left in the world who could fix it other than them. He just hoped they could find the Tunnel in time.

But Daniel only gives a dark smile. "It's already too late, Jeb. They may have been able to stop Itex alone, but they can't stop Itex and TDI combined."

**Well, tell me what you think? Since this is so short I'm going to try and get another chapter in. Please review. Kristen**


	2. Ohio

**Hi guys, I would like to thank everyone for the reviews. They're really encouraging. It made me really excited to type up another chapter. And yes, I do plan on having the members of the Tunnel Guard be experiments. They'll be entering the story shortly. And don't worry, I promise this one will be longer than the prologue. Just remember, the more you review, the more it makes me want to type!**

**Chapter 1**

**Max Pov.**

"Where exactly _are _we going?" Fang looks at me questioningly as we fly. "You just kind of said, 'Let's go' and never told us."

"Well, I was thinking Ohio." I shrug.

"Ohio?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Hey, think about it. Itex would never think we'd go to Ohio." I tell him.

"Guess not." He says and then turns his head and stares out in front of us.

Right now I was pretty sure we were somewhere above the beginning left side of Indiana but I'm not really sure. We haven't stopped for a while. But at least we're getting close to our destination.

"Max?" Angel says quietly from my right.

"Hmm?"

"I don't think we should go to Ohio." She looks up at me with a strange look on her face.

"Why?" I ask her.

"I-I don't know. I just have a bad feeling about it is all." She shakes her head.

I frown. When Angel has a bad feeling that probably means we're in for it. "What kind of bad feeling?"

"I'm not sure. It's probably nothing. It just doesn't feel right." She swoops down and goes to talk to Nudge.

Okay, maybe Ohio isn't such a good idea . . . but Angel is a mind reader, not a physic; as far as I know she can't see into the future or anything, so maybe it is nothing.

I sigh. If it does turn out to be something I'm going to hate myself.

About an hour later we decide to camp out in some forest that had a nice clearing, big enough, but not too conspicuous.

I'm taking first watch. The fire we had going was nearly out. I pick up some more sticks from out little pile and toss them in and then poke them around with a larger one. Suddenly Iggy bolts straight up. "Flyboys!"

"Everyone up!" I yell! "Flyboys! Get up!"

Everyone jumps up into a fighting stance and the flyboys start piling in. I lunge at the nearest one and do a round-house kick right in the neck. Its neck snaps back and I punch the neck back. This time it snaps completely off. The flyboy stops all movement and collapses into a heap on the ground.

"Aim for the necks!" I inform the flock. "They dislocate easy!"

I watch as a flyboy grabs Fang from behind. Fang uses his elbow to jab it in the neck once then up toward its chin and the head rolls back, only connected by a few wires.

Suddenly there's a loud explosion that sends us all flying backward. "Iggy! Thanks for the warning!" I say sarcastically.

"What?" He says, "It wasn't me."

I look at Gazzy. He shakes his head. I frown and stand up to see all of the flyboys lying in the dirt as we're being pelted with flying metal and shrapnel. Suddenly there's hundreds more flyboys appearing out of the trees where the explosion had started. There's a man among them.

The rest of the flock stands up and walks up behind me. The man has dark brown hair and brown eyes. He's fairly tall, and as far as I can tell, he was no experiment.

"Maximum Ride." He says with a grim smile on his face. "It's nice to finally see you in person."

"Who are you?" I demand, skipping straight to the point.

"Rick Artino." He says. "I'm the son of the new leader of Itex."

"Itex has a new leader?" Iggy asks, sounding confused.

Rick laughs. "Ah, so you don't know. I guess you are as much of a worthless bunch of freaks as my father always said."

Fang takes a step forward but I put an arm out to keep him back.

"What do you want now?" I glare at him.

He shakes his head and turns around and orders to the flyboys, "Time to go."

And just like that the flyboys are gone along with Rick and leave us in the forest.

"Everyone okay?" I turn around to face my flock.

I see four faces nod. _Four!_ Someone was missing.

Nudge wasn't here. Crap! Why hadn't I paid better attention? I groan inwardly. Not again.

**Tell me what you think!!! Be honest and don't be afraid to criticize. Oh, and review, review, review! -Kristen**


	3. TDI

**Thanks again for all the wonderful reviews! And don't worry; there will be Faxness in the story, but it will be evolving slowly. And if there is ever an extremely large space between when I write chapters, our house is kind of in the middle of nowhere and we don't get a very good connection, so that's why. Some days I get service, other days I don't . . . trust me, everything technically involved in this house doesn't work right somehow. And I was going to post this chapter yesterday after chapter one but my internet went down entirely (It's kind of funny because only my computer wasn't getting service, and we have 5 computers in the house), and I couldn't get on my e-mail long enough to send the file to my other e-mail address so I could post it on a different computer. And enjoy, nice long chapter. **

**Chapter 2**

**Fang pov.**

I watched as Max paced around in front of us, obviously trying to figure out what to do. She had a frenzied look on her face and was looking stressed.

"Max?" Angel runs up to her.

"Yeah?" She asks.

"I know where they took Nudge." She states.

I stand up and walk over to where they were talking to listen better.

Max looks caught by surprise. "Really? How do you know? Where'd they take her?

"Not far from here. That guy didn't know I could read minds and he was thinking about where they were going to take her. It's an old TDI headquarters." She tells us.

I frown. What's TDI?

Max looks puzzled but tries to hide it. "Um, TDI?"

Angel shrugs. "I don't know what it is. That's just what I heard him thinking. 7041 Kay Street, Farmersville, Ohio."

"Well," Max says, "then I guess we're going to Ohio after all."

When Angel leaves I go up to Max, "Hey,"

"Hi." She tries to smile, but I can tell it's fake.

"I just realized something." I tell her and sit down on a log.

"What?" She sits down beside me.

"That Rick guy was willing to blow up fifty of their flyboys to get us to stop fighting. If they don't care about fifty flyboys, Max, think of how many they must have made right now. Obviously blowing up fifty of them was no big deal to them." I explain.

She looks down at her feet. "Yeah, I've been thinking about that. Remember how many flyboys Rick brought with him after the explosion? There were hundreds. And why would they take only Nudge? None of it adds up."

I hadn't thought about that. But Max was right. None of this was adding up.

**Nudge pov. **

"Let go of me!" I yelled at the flyboys, even though I knew it was completely useless.

A white coat jabs me in the back and hisses, "Shut it!"

"Why don't you make me!" I challenge.

I guess I was getting on his nerves because he whacks me in the back of the head. Hard. "Fine." I grumble.

A tall man who slightly resembles Rick but older walks up with Rick and a girl around Max, Fang, and Iggy's age. She had really light brown hair and matching light brown eyes. She had a strange look in her eyes. She wasn't like us; she was just a girl who had seen too much. "Cell ninety seven." The man says.

Ninety seven? Jeez, how many cells were there? How many prisoners were there?

The white coats and flyboys holding on to me drag me to a cell and literally throw me in and lock it. I stand up and turn around. There's a little girl, probably around six or seven years old, with black hair, and black eyes. Her cloths are tattered; her hair ruffled; and looks deathly pale. "Who're you?" She asks me with kind of a weak voice. She looks really scared.

"Nudge. You?" I try to keep the sentences short, and not reveal anything until I know for sure I could trust her. But she was in a cell. Surely she's not working with Itex if they're keeping her in a _cell_.

"Hayley." She stands up and walks over to me timidly. "What're you in here for?"

I think for a moment and then unfurl my wings. Her eyes widen a bit but then go back to normal. Probably wasn't something new to a captive around here, but still the shock of seeing people with wings always occurs. "Why are you in here?"

"My brother. These people want my brother and his friends to find some document for them and until they do they won't release me. And they have to do it in a month or they said they'd kill me." She looks up at me sadly. "I'm starting to think my brother has a double life he never told us about."

"Who's your brother?" I ask her.

"His name's Shane. Shane Haze. Have you met him?" She at me hopefully now.

I shake my head. "We don't really have much time for socializing. But your brother's against Itex too?"

Now she looks confused. "What's Itex?"

"The place we're in right now." I raise an eyebrow. The poor girl didn't even know where we were.

She cocks her head. "We're in a TDI base right now."

Now it's my turn to look confused. "What?"

"They murdered my brother's best friend's parents. They teamed up with some other foundation I think. What is Itex?" She asks.

"Well, they are a bunch of mad scientists who like to experiment on children and kidnap people." I explain.

Her face goes pale. "They . . . experiment on kids? You mean like what happened to you?"

I nod.

"Yeah, they're here too. I've seen a bunch of kids around here. All of them nearly dead. They always put them in here with me to see how they interact with normal humans. They look disfigured and diseased-looking. There was one guy with mold growing on him." She shivers. "They always die right in front of me. You're the only one I've seen that looks human."

"Oh . . ." I take a closer look at this little girl. All of this was wrong. She's probably already scarred for life.

"I keep track of them all." She says quietly and leads me over to one side of the cell with markings all over it.

_Boy with scales_

_Girl that had shock waves run through her every five minutes, eventually killed her_

_Girl with webbed feet and half a face_

_Girl with spikes poking out of skin_

_Boy who had seizures a lot and only had one arm and half a leg . . ._

And the list goes on and on. The list had been scratched into the wall by stones.

I look at Hayley again. She was staring at me with a serious expression. "Do you think they'll do that to me?"

I break eye contact with her and stare at the wall again. "I don't know Hayley, I don't know."

**Max pov. **

We were standing outside of the base that Angel said Nudge was being held in. "Can you pick up anything?" I ask her.

She shakes her head. "Nothing. It's like they have some kind of thing to block me out."

"Okay." I stare at the entrance where at least ten guards were standing. "Can you use mind control?"

"Let me try." She closes her eyes and gets a look of concentration on her face. After a minute she opens her eyes again. "Nothing. I can't even control any of you guys."

"Alright then. Guess that ideas done with. Here's the plan. Iggy, Gazzy, can you guys get a few bombs set to go off in like five minutes or something and put them close by the guard entrance without being seen?"

Iggy smiles mischievously. "You got it, Chief."

"Once they're distracted Iggy and Gazzy take Angel and go cause as much mayhem as you can _without _getting caught. Fang and I will run in once everyone's caught up with whatever you're doing and get Nudge. Everyone understand?"

They nod. "I get the plan." Gazzy smirks. "But I'm still trying to process that you want us to make a scene. Normally you're all 'they can't know we're here'."

I restrain rolling my eyes. "That's the plan. It's so not us they'd think someone else is here. Just don't get caught!"

I take one more glance at the guards. They're all talking quietly to each other. "Okay, now, when they're not paying attention." Iggy and Gazzy take off into the sky silently. _Show time. _

**Okay, I am going to stop typing until I get five more reviews. . . I think. (AND THEY CANT ALL BE FROM THE SAME PEPOPLE! But if you want to review more than once that never hurt anyone) (Sigh) I'll probably give in and post the next chapter anyway, because that's the type of person I am. When I'm in the mood, nothing can stop me from typing . . . -Kristen**


	4. Break In

**Aloha! Keep reviewing . . . and hoping I can convince my dad to buy a booster so I get better internet reception . . . or a laptop so I can move around the house for better reception . . . well, my birthday is only three months away, and you never know. (IMPORTANT) And tell me if you want me to put in some different viewpoints, like from Iggy and Angel and Gazzy and stuff. I don't really know who everyone wants to be hearing from. I'm open for suggestions. (EVEN MORE IMPORTANT! READ THIS) And if you want Fax, you might wanna start reviewing, because, I swear this time, until I am satisfied with how many reviews I get, I will not post up the next chapter, which has got some fax in it. (Hint; hint)**

**Chapter 3**

**Max pov. **

Fang and I watch the guards through our tree in the nearby park. I look at my watch. Five . . . four . . . three . . . two . . . BOOM!

All of the guards are blown backwards and bang against the big stone wall blocking the foundation from the rest of the world. TDI Angel had said.

"Come on!" I quietly tell Fang and we jump out of the tree and onto the ground. By now more white coats and guards are piling out of the many buildings barely visible behind the giant wall. We edge our way to the wall and swoop over and land on top of it.

"It's too easy." I hear Fang mutter. He was right. There had to be a catch. And there was.

Suddenly the top of the wall starts to slide to one side, revealing large spike-like things. I raise an eyebrow and exchange glances with Fang. We hop into the air slightly.

"They wouldn't just put spikes on the wall." I tell Fang suspiciously. He nods. I turn around to see the spikes shoot up like lightning and curve over top of us, as though to encage us. And it's closing in quickly. I grab Fang's arm and use my super speed to hurtle us past the spikes and inside the area.

We stop and watch as the spikes finish closing in, they had curled like some sort of snail. Then I figured out what they were doing. They keep curling in so you get caught in it and then sliced by the metal once it finished curling. "Max, we need to go." Fang's soft voice brings me back to reality.

He was right, if we had any hope of saving Nudge we needed to get a move on.

We land, still keeping close to the wall. As we see some guards running toward the fire that the bomb had created Fang shoves me down to the ground and we stay squashed in the grass until they passed.

Once they're gone we spring up and start heading toward one of the buildings. I had no idea where Nudge was being kept, I had never even seen this place before; I had no idea where anything was.

Suddenly there was another set of explosions to our right. I smile; the wall was being blown up bit by bit. Though I had to wonder, where on earth were they getting all these explosives?

I see a bunch more guards and white coats running toward the fires with fire extinguishers. No one was paying any attention to us. Morons. That was the biggest mistake they could've made.

I kick open the first door I see. There's no one in there. It's just an abandoned office room. We try five more buildings without much more luck. Finally, when I'm started to get frustrated we burst open a door to see a bunch of chambers and cell-like rooms with . . . people in them. "I think this is it." I tell Fang.

We walk quickly through the hallways. Each cell containing creatures I wish I had never seen. When we see a little boy with broken wings, a bruised up face, blood encrusted with no legs, I'm about to start crying but Fang grabs my arm. "Don't look at them."

Finally I hear a loud screech. "Max!" I whip my head around to find Nudge in a cell with a little girl who looks like she could break if you just touched her.

"Nudge!" I run over to the cell. Fang grabs the set of keys from a nearby desk and starts shoving them one by one into the keyhole. None of them fit. A man in an all-black ensemble runs in and grabs something off a different desk. When he looks up and see's us he drops the papers he was holding and has a terrified look on his face.

Fang walks up to him and pins him to the nearest wall. "Open the cell." He growls.

The man stumbles his hands into his pockets and pulls out a ring of keys and points one out, while shaking horribly. Obviously a new worker. Fang snatches it out of his hands and lets him go. The man runs out of the room as fast as he can, the papers completely forgotten.

Fang throws the keys to me and I unlock the cell and grab Nudge. "Wait!" She yells at me. I stop walking and look at her, waiting for her explanation.

"We have to take Hayley." She wriggles out of my grasp and goes over to the little girl and pulls her out of the cell.

"Hayley?" I stare at Nudge. "Uh, okay, yeah, I guess. Just come on. We have to get out of here. Fang, can you carry Hayley?"

He nods and grabs the little girl gently; I can tell he's afraid he'll break her.

We start running toward the exit and fly over what was left of the wall. Things are still exploding, jeez, where _are _they getting those explosives?

Once we reach the other side Fang puts the girl down and we start running through the woods. I hear gun shots behind us. "We need to hurry!" I yell to the others over the gunfire and bombs.

I'm starting to hear people running and shouting behind us. Crap.

We reach the edge of the forest and come upon a freeway with cars driving everywhere. We run across is, despite the honks from angry car drivers. The men running behind us with the guns stop when they see a cop car with a policeman leaning against it looking at them in suspicion. That was pretty close. Though we probably could've beaten regular men, men with guns I'm not so sure about that.

I turn around to see Hayley isn't with us anymore. I turn back to look at the men, who are still standing at the edge of the forest, one of them is holding Hayley tightly. Ugh! "Max!" Nudge's voice sounds from behind me. "We have to save her! Her brother knows about TDI and Itex! They're against them too! They might know something we don't."

I groan. "Fine Nudge we'll save the girl." I run across the street and the policeman yells, "Hey girl! Get out of the street!" but I ignore him.

When the men see me coming they start scattering through the woods and I try to follow the one with Hayley. I find him and punch him in the stomach. He keels over and let's go of Hayley. I grab her arm and start running, dragging along Hayley.

I'm almost to the edge of the forest when I'm tackled by someone. I flip onto my back and grab whoever it was by the wrist. It was a boy, maybe a little older than me. Two more girls and a boy come out of the shadows and surround us. He twists his wrist to get away and he jerks me up and shoves me toward a tree. "Who are you?" He demands. The boy had black hair and black eyes and was probably as tall as Fang.

"You're worst nightmare if you don't get the heck off me." I snarl at him. He lets go of my arms and steps back, glaring at me.

"Where did you take my sister?" He hisses.

It takes me a moment to realize he's talking about Hayley. "We saw you running with her. Where is she?"

"Well, actually I was rescuing her when you attacked me!" I glare right back at him. I turn and look around for her but she's nowhere to be found. "And now the white coats probably got her again all thanks to you!"

"Why would you rescue her? You didn't even know her." He scans over me, trying to figure out if he had ever met me before.

"Because I'm just that type of person. And she shared a cell with someone else I was trying to rescue." I narrow my eyes harshly.

I hear footsteps and see Fang and Nudge running toward us. They slow down when they see the other people.

"Now if you don't mind, I think we'll be on our way. And I'm sorry for trying to rescue your sister." I smirk.

I push my way through them to get to Fang and Nudge but one of the girls with light, long brown hair and brown eyes grabs my shoulder. "Wait. You're against TDI and that new company they're with?"

I turn around to face the girl. She looks around the boys age, maybe a little younger. "I'm Heather." She puts out her hand.

"Max." I shake her hand.

"That's Shane," she points to the guy who had confronted me, "Skye," the other girl who black hair and vibrant green eyes, "and Trevor," the other boy with blonde hair and blue eyes. We were trying to rescue his sister. They kidnapped someone from you too?"

I nod, trying to determine whether or not these people were trustworthy. "They've been chasing us for a while now. Why were they after his sister?"

The girl hesitates but then continues, "They want us to find something for them. Look, I feel like I can trust you. Are you with TDI?"

I shake my head.

"We aren't either." Shane steps into the conversation, but the other two stay back.

Heather sighs. "We shouldn't talk here. They'll be back with reinforcements any moment now. Come with us."

"What about Hayley?" Shane says angrily.

"Shane, they got Hayley, we're not going to be able to get her back right now." Heather turns back to look at us. "Follow me."

I keep my feet planted firm. "Where are we going?'

She smiles. "The Tunnel."

**Seriously people, I'm not trying to be mean, but reviews really encourage a writer, so please, review! And then I can stop yelling at all of you to do so. -Kristen **


	5. The Tunnel

**Okay, here's chapter four. Hope you like it. It even has a little Fax in it for all you Fax lovers. But hey, what's an MR Fic without Faxness? Review! Please, and yeah, I know I said I wouldn't type until I got a certain amount of reviews which I already forgot what it was, but um, well . . . I can't resist. Annoying little habit. So I'm just not gonna make any more goals unless I get really ticked off and are not getting any reviews. **

**Chapter 4**

**Max pov.**

Once we found Iggy, Gazzy, and Angel we headed out with the four people and I had to wonder; _who are they? _

Relax. They're friends Max. 

I stop dead in my tracks at the appearance of the voice, aka Jeb. He hadn't been intruding in my head for a while. _What? Then who are they?_

You'll find out soon enough. He states. Something told me that was all he was going to say. Jeb and his short little useless comments.

_Jeb! Who are they? Answer me! _No answer. I focus back into the present to see my flock and the other four kids staring at me strangely and I remembered I had just randomly stopped.

"Sorry." I mutter and start walking again. They lead us through some woods for a long while and I wish we could just fly. Fang comes up behind me.

"You okay?" He asks.

"Yeah." I reply.

"Talking to Jeb earlier?" He looks at me with his dark eyes.

"Yep. He only said two sentences though. Kind of useless." I shrug.

"What'd he tell you?" He continues quietly so everyone else doesn't hear our conversation.

"Well, he says they're our friends and that we'll find out who they are soon enough." I sigh. "Of course he couldn't tell me anything else, being Jeb and all."

"We're here." Heather stops and goes over to a large hole in the ground. We all gather around it and start climbing down a ladder into the dark, dark hole and I suddenly get a claustrophobic feeling from all the darkness. Also the tunnel leading down is no more than three feet wide.

The ladder stops and my feet touch hard ground and I feel shallow water under my feet, maybe only an inch deep. Shane gets out a flashlight and turns it on, revealing what looks to me like the inside of a sewer system or something, except without all the grime-like water. The tunnel itself was made out of some sort of metal and the water on the ground was almost clear, it looked like rain or lake water. With every step we took I could hear it echo.

Heather and Shane are ahead of the group, walking and leading us through the tunnels, which there actually are a lot of. Skye and Trevor hang back behind us, whispering quietly. Skye catches me looking at them and gives me a hard look with cold eyes. The look in her eyes makes me wonder if they were trying to trap us. Since they had two in front, and two behind, but I tried to trust Jeb's opinion, not as easy as it sounds, and trust them.

Eventually they lead us down another tunnel, but at the end of this one is light and I can hear voices. We enter the large area to see six other people there. A girl with freckles, long, curly blonde hair, and green eyes stalks right up to Shane. "Who are they?"

"I'll get to it in a minute, Beth." Shane grumbles to her.

"Max, Fang, Iggy, Nudge, Gazzy, and Angel, I would like to officially welcome you to the Tunnel. We're the Tunnel Guards." Heather smiles at us.

"The Tunnel Guards?" Iggy raises an eyebrow.

"Yes, we live in here. We rescue kids from TDI and their new adaptation and bring them here." She motions to the rest of the kids and I wonder who's leader, Heather? Or Shane?

Everyone starts introducing themselves one by one.

The first is the girl named Beth. "Hi, I'm Beth, fifteen years old, and can teleport." The last part makes me gawk.

"Wait! You guys are experiments?"

Heather nods. "My parents were killed by Daniel and I tried to follow them with Shane back when I saw about five and they caught us. Everyone else we rescued after we escaped and had already been experimented on."

I think about that. And who the heck is Daniel and why did we not know any of this?

We continued the introduction. Next is a little boy with red hair. "Jason; eleven, and I can create static."

And then a girl around Angel's age. She had blonde hair also. "I'm Laurie. I'm seven years old, and I can make things levitate."

Then a guy with hair just lighter than Fang's but with light blue eyes. "I'm Blaze, sixteen, I create electrical waves. Kind of like Jason's but more powerful and it controls all technology in a two mile radius."

Then another girl with clear liquid blue eyes and shoulder length brown hair. "My name's Isabelle. I can control nature and the weather. I'm fourteen."

And then last of all, a boy with really light blonde hair and hazel eyes. "I'm Scar; I got my name because of an incident with the guards of TDI that left a huge scar across my back. I can create hallucinations and am thirteen."

Then Shane says, "And you know who we are, but I can make things blow up with my mind and am the leader of the Tunnel Guards. Heather has wings." I'm stunned by that one. "Trevor has super strength. And Skye can transform into different animals and people."

Now it's my flocks turn. "I'm Max." I start. "We all have wings and I can fly over 200 mph, fourteen years old. And I'm the leader."

"Iggy, fourteen, I'm blind, and have a talent with explosives."

"I'm Nudge, twelve years old and I love to talk."

"I'm Gazzy, I'm eight and I can mimic any noise. And I help Ig out with building the bombs."

"Fang, fourteen." I see Blaze almost smirk when he doesn't say anything else. What the heck? Great, of course that never means anything but trouble.

"I'm Angel, I'm six and I can read minds and control them, breathe under water, and talk to fish." Everyone's eyes widen when they hear all that.

**Fang pov. **

About an hour later we're all huddled in groups in the Tunnel. Trevor and Skye, Beth, Shane and Heather, Jason, Gazzy and Scar, Laurie and Angel, Blaze and Isabelle, me and Max.

The two of us are sitting down, leaning our backs against the wall of the Tunnel. We're not really talking, just sitting. Things have been . . . awkward since the flock split.

"Fang?" She says quietly, just barely audible.

"Yeah?" She looks directly into my eyes.

"Why'd you leave?" She asks me seriously.

"Because you let Ari in, Max. He almost killed me twice, he had kidnapped Angel even. Do you think I could actually trust him?" I look back at her.

"If he was alive today would you still not trust him?" She asks.

"Of course I wouldn't trust him."

"Fang," her eyes almost turn cold, "he fought with us till the end. He died trying to help us escape. He never even once showed disloyalty. Fang, he's my brother."

"That wouldn't have mattered before. You used to hate him." I return the cold stare.

"Face it, Fang," Her eyes narrow. "Things are changing. I'm not the same person I used to be and neither are you. Why do you hate him so much? The whole time you were gone he never hurt any of us. He helped us escape, remember?"

I still can't believe any of this. Max defending Ari, it just doesn't add up right in my mind. She stood up to walk off but I stand up too and grab her arm. "You picked him over me."

She whips around and gives me a glare I had hoped I would never have had laid on me by her. It was the death glare she would always give the erasers whenever they'd try and attack us. It was a glare that could scare the living soul from a person. That told me she was definately mad at me.

"Fang, why would I pick him over you?" She demands. "Do you actually think I would do that? To my own flock?" She tries to twist out of my grip but I just hold on tighter. "Fang, just let go. I'm not in the mood."  
"Max . . ." I lean in closer to her but she breaks the contact with my hand and storms off, leaving me standing there, more confused than I've ever been in my life.

**(READ IT! IMPORTANT!) Okay, just a little update, the reason I post up a chapter almost every day is because I like typing . . . really like typing . . . but this will be the last update from now until Saturday night . . . maybe Sunday. I'm leaving Friday morning, early in the morning, to go to a skating competition in Michigan (America's coldest state ever) with my synchronized skating team. Pathetic isn't it? I'm an ice skater but I can't stand the cold, so why do I skate? The world may never know . . . -Kristen**


	6. Kayla

**Hi! I just wanted to say to you all, when I first started typing this, I never thought that reviewers could be so . . . nice . . . um, I've grown up with a brother who is the worlds biggest critic, you should have heard him when we went to watch Pirates of the Caribbean 3. Anyway, thank you all!!! And yes, I know I've already put up a chapter today, but what the heck? I'm in the mood . . . jeez; lately I've ALWAYS been in the mood. But this is the last post until I get back from Michigan. I expect that when I get back I'll have a whole load of new reviews to read, hint; hint. **

**Chapter 5**

**Max pov.**

That morning we woke up to Shane entering the Tunnel with an entire tray of hot food. Eggs, biscuits, French toast, bacon, waffles . . . "Okay, how the heck did you get that and where did it come from?"

Shane laughs. "Well, the Tunnel is actually on my parents' property, but they don't know about it, and this is what's left from breakfast this morning."

"Wow," Nudge says, never taking her eyes off the food, "your mom must really like to cook."

He grins. "Actually we have a cook who always cooks like ten servings more than we can eat."

"You have a cook?" I stare at him.

"Uh, yeah, my dad is kind of . . . rich." He shrugs.

"More like a zillionaire." Isabelle walks up.

"Here," Shane sets the tray of food down on a handmade wooden table, "dig in."

While everyone's eating I notice Skye keeping her head down, not glancing up at all. She doesn't say anything the whole morning. But then again, neither does Fang.

But he's been kind of distant since last night. I know I probably shouldn't have brought the topic up, but it's been bugging me and I felt like I had to do it.

"So," I say, trying to break the silence, "what're we doing today?"

Shane shrugs. Heather walks into the Tunnel carrying a newspaper and biting into an apple. "Shane, you've made the front page. _Again_."

Shane groans. "Read it."

She sets her apple down and starts reading. "Billionaire Paul Haze's son, Shane Haze, is once again rebelling. Today he and some of his scrawny friends, obviously more rebels, were spotted in Farmersville, Ohio, just near where a local pharmacy caught on fire from what seems like a draft of another explosion. Is it just coincidence that he seems to be everywhere whenever there's trouble, or is it not? Will this son of one of the wealthiest men in America be the next serial killer on the FBI's most wanted list, or can he turn is life around . . ." Heather rolls her eyes and throws it into the fire we had made nearby. It was kind of funny, I thought, a fire inside a tunnel.

"I AM NOT SCRAWNY!" Trevor yells.

"Okay, we seriously need you to loose the paparazzi glam boy." Blaze says sarcastically.

"Shut up." Shane smiles though and throws a biscuit at Blaze's head.

It gets quiet again and Fang says, "I'm going for a walk around the tunnels."

"Sure," Shane says, "all of 'em lead to a dead end, and there's only one way in and out, so nothing should be in. actually, no one knows this is even here, so you're good."

He stalks off down the Tunnel and disappears.

"What'd you do to him Max?" Iggy snickers.

"Fang's mad and your first thought is it's my fault? You know it could not be me." I defend.

"What? It is your fault. Max, with him, it's always your fault." He smiles.

"I'd shut up if I were you." I warn him, trying to keep my tone serious.

At that moment a girl, our age, runs in and almost collides with Scar. "Kayla?" Shane walks up to her.

"Max!" Nudge yanks on my arm. "She was at TDI when I was there. I saw here. I think she's one of them."

"It's okay." Isabelle explains. "She's under cover for us. She's Daniel's daughter, but she hates what he does. She's the one who helps us get people out normally."

"Okay," I say, "who is Daniel?"

"He's the leader of TDI." She tells me.

"What're you doing here?" Shane asks her.

She looks out of breath but still says, "Daniel, and the board, they decided to abandon the TDI facility here in town. They think the governments on to it being used illegally."

"What?" Shane's eyes widen.

"I don't know where they're going. Daniel wouldn't tell me. He says I'll see when we get there." She pants.

"Oh," Shane says, "well, will there be any way you could come back here? To tell us where they are, I mean."

She shakes her head. "This'll be my last trip here for a while. He says it's really far away. And he is taking away the phone in my room and unsupervised computer access. He checks all the e-mails I send, they go through a filter on his computer. He's getting really mad that everyone knows where TDI's first base was and is keeping a closer eye on _everyone_. There'll be no exceptions."

She looks toward us and pauses. "Oh my God. You're Maximum Ride."

I try to smile politely. "Yes." Because everyone seems to know my name these days.

"Don't go back there." Her voice suddenly changes from exasperation to fear. "Whatever you do, don't go back there." At this moment I notice Fang standing in the doorway, leaning against the wall. "Max, they want you dead! I'm not kidding. If you even set foot on their new perimeter they'll have you killed in seconds."

I grin. "Well, if they think that they obviously don't know me very well."

Fang chuckles from the entrance.

Kayla just shakes her head again. "Then you obviously don't know _them_ very well."

**Well? What do you think? Review, review, review! Wish me luck in Michigan! This is only my synchronized skating team's third competition this season and we only have one left. -Kristen **


	7. Strange Man in Black

**Hey, sorry I haven't updated in a while. What with exams this week, memorizing my speech for speech meet, my skating thing in Michigan, skating four days a week, eight hours total, and my computer going screwy I hardly have time to sleep anymore. Actually I had this typed two days ago but I had made the mistake of typing it on the computer in my room (the one with the internet problems) and I haven't been able to access the internet since we got back at all. So now I have my mom's laptop sitting in front of me and I'm going to just retype everything onto it and then post it from here. Ugh, we have to live out in the middle of nowhere. But don't worry about it people, I'm working on getting it fixed and asking for a laptop for my birthday in March so I can just move to a different part of the house. Please review.**

**Chapter 6**

**Max pov.**

So basically all day we sit . . . inside a tunnel . . . no, sorry, _the _Tunnel. I was about to go insane with boredom. Pretty much nothing happens after Kayla leaves. "What do you guys _do_ all day?" I ask Heather.

"Well, normally we have stuff to do. But it's raining outside right now. Hard. The wind is blowing like seventy miles an hour. Usually on days like this we'd raid TDI because they wouldn't be expecting us, but I take it by now they've already left." She sighs. "You're right though. I feel like I'll go mad if we don't do something."

"Trevor! Give it back!" Beth yells at Trevor from somewhere else in the Tunnel.

"Why? You're not even using it!" I look up to see Trevor holding a notebook or something just out of Beth's reach.

"Yeah, but it's still not yours!" Beth yells back.

Heather laughs and shakes her head. "They couldn't get along to save their lives."

"They always fight a lot?" I ask her.

"All the time. One time Beth got so mad she shoved him into a large river in the middle of a storm. Skye had to transform into some large fish or a dolphin or something to get him out the currant was so strong. He was ticked off at Beth for weeks. He wouldn't say anything to her. But hey, at least we're always getting good entertainment." Heather has a thoughtful grin on her lips.

"So you guys call yourselves a flock?" She asks after a little while.

I nod. "Since we all have wings it fits pretty well, at least that's what I think."

"It's cool. I like it." At that moment Isabelle walks over, laughing at Beth and Trevor.

"Ya know they love each other." She giggles.

"Nah." Heather shakes her head. "Trevor's got it for Skye."

"Max?" Nudge runs over. "Have you seen Fang?" She looks kind of annoyed.

"Not since this morning. Why?" I look up at her from my seat on the cold metal flooring of the Tunnel.

"No idea. Angel just told me to find him because she needs to ask him something and so I've been running around everywhere trying to find him and I can't and I hate how he just disappears. It's like the guy turns invisible or something." She looks around as if expecting him to pop up out of nowhere.

"Couldn't Angel just ask me whatever it is?" I ask.

"I dunno." She pauses and has a distant look on her face. "I know! I know!" She yells out randomly. When she see's everyone staring at her she starts to explain. "I was talking to Angel. And she says that Blaze is thinking about coming over here. Just a heads up. And does anyone know where Skye went either?"

I look around the room and shake my head. Everyone was here. Everyone except Fang and Skye. "Nope."

She groans and stalks off.

**Fang pov.**

I walk around the tunnels down here like fifty times. I practically have this place memorized by now. But I'd do anything not to go back to the main Tunnel where everyone else is. Especially Max. I really didn't feel up to talking to her right now.

As I'm about to turn a corner I hear voices whispering. "I can't do that . . . I know, but still . . . well, then I want to see you do it! He'll have your head . . . Shane will kill you if he doesn't . . . Carla?" I listen for a moment longer, trying to figure out who's talking. I can only make out a girls voice. The other I suspect is male but is talking too softly for me to hear anything he's saying other than murmurs. "Ari?" My head instantly jerks up with interest at the sound of the cretin's name. What was going on here?"

I turn the corner to see Skye talking to some tall strange man in all black.

I just stand there and watch him turn and leave, heading toward the exit of the Tunnel. When Skye turns around she comes face to face with me. Her eyes widen when she see's me standing there, arms crossed over my chest. "So Skye . . . you just gonna tell me who that was and what you were talking about or do I have to get it out of you the hard way?"

**Please review and tell me what you think so I don't get discouraged or anything. -Kristen**


	8. I know your past

**Hey people, sorry I couldn't update yesterday like I had thought. I was having a bad day. At lunch a couple of idiots blew up a ketchup packet and hit me all over the back of my shirt and got in my hair and it was a big red, sticky, disgusting mess. And so I went home and took a shower and scrubbed my hair three times to get it out, not even kidding. And right after school I had skating until six thirty and then I had to study for the three hardest finals there are (Science, history, literature), and then I had to watch American Idol. Well, I didn't really have to but . . . you get my point. So I really didn't have the time to type it up . . . oh, and internet was down again. Man I really need to get that laptop. Oh, but on the good side, Anthony Horowitz came to the book store and he signed one of my books. **

**Chapter 7**

**Max pov.**

Okay, we seriously NEED to do something. I'll have to admit, as hilarious as it is watching Trevor and Beth argue, it just gets plain annoying after a while.

"Angel?" I ask. She looks up at me in response. "Have you figured out where Fang is yet?"

A troubled look comes over her face. "No, I haven't been able to pick up any thoughts from him. It's the same feeling I got when we were at TDI."

Isabelle hears our conversation and comes over. "TDI used to be here. Back when they first started. It was decades ago. Back before Daniel was even alive and it was all run by Frances Decrondale. Decrondale's dead now though. And thank god he is. Well, after twenty years of running TDI he suddenly disappeared along with all of the most important files and DNA mixtures they had. The only reason we know about him is because Skye smuggled a file or two out of Daniel's office. Well, anyway, when they used to use this as a base they had put some sort of special protection over the tunnels they were using. This wasn't one of them. So Fang probably just walked into one of the tunnels or something. And the thing Daniel wants us to find for him in return of Hayley is the deed to TDI. Don't ask me how an illegal foundation even has a deed, I don't know. But I have a feeling they'll just kill her anyway. We have three months to get it."

Angel's face looks a little less worried and goes over to talk to Laurie.

Fang had been gone for almost two hours. _Oh well, _I tell myself, _it's Fang, he'll be fine. _

**Fang pov.**

Skye looks completely stunned and horrified at the same time when she see's me.

"Fang? Oh, uh, hi. You scared me there for a minute. Thought you were Rick." She laughs tensely and sounding forced, but I can tell it's fake.

"Er, well, I'd better go back." She instantly flings herself away from me but I'm smart enough to be prepared and grab her arm tightly. She sighs. "Okay, what do you want?"

"Who was that?" I demand.

"My cousin. He's been smuggling us info from TDI while being undercover." She says, but her tone tells me it's not true.

"No, he's not." I tell her bluntly. "Tell me who he is or I'll—"

"You'll what?" She snickers at me. "Go crying to Max?" She shakes her head mockingly. "No, no, the great Fang wouldn't do that. He'd confront me in front of everyone." And then she looks at me dead in the eye. "Look, bird boy, I know things about you that your flock doesn't even know. I know things about you that could make even Max change her mind about having you in her flock. I know even more about your past than you do. I can tell people things that will make your life even more messed up. I know who you are, Fang. None of this ever happened, got it? I know your weaknesses. I know how to kill you with one hand behind my back."

"I'd like to see you try." I growl back at her.

She smiles evilly. "Not today, but we'll get there, don't worry." And with that she snaps into a moth, getting away from my hold, and zooms away down the tunnel, leaving me in an eerie silence.

Something told me there definitely was a part of Skye that none of us knew. That none of us wanted to know. Who was she? 

**Max pov. **

Eventually Skye shows up. When she did, she looked ticked. I go up to her, "Hey, have you seen—"

"He'll be here in a few minutes." She grumbles. She walks off into a corner alone until Trevor eventually joins her after a while.

I wait impatiently several more minutes until Fang finally makes an appearance. He looks dazed over. "Fang?"

I'm fine." He snaps and walks away. This is pretty much what told me he wasn't.

Blaze walks over. "He okay?"

"With him, who knows?" I watch Fang sit down as far away from everyone as he can, with a look of deep thought on his face. Why had he snapped at me?

"What happened?" He asks.

"No idea." I reply.

"Oh," He says, but he doesn't leave. Just continues to stand there.

"Umm," I say a little uncomfortably, "did you have something you wanted to tell me?"

"Oh yeah," he says, but he looks disappointed, "I did. I just forgot what it was. See ya then, I guess." He sulks off. I watch him leave.

And that's when I realize he never really had anything to tell me. he was just looking for a good flirting opportunity.

I need to pick up on things faster.

**So tell me what you think. I know there are more of you out there reading this. Trust me. I KNOW. I'm being serious. If you read this, write a review. It helps. -Kristen**


	9. The Drawing Table in TDI

**Hi people. Thank you for all the amazing reviews. And if you are actually reading this part instead of skipping ahead to the story, thank you, you're amazing. We've all been guilty of that, I think. Including me. I'm so happy. Only one more day of exams to go. Thank goodness I go to a Christian school that has a rule against no tests or exams on Thursday because that's our school's chapel day. (For the lucky people who have never experienced a chapel day in their school, chapel is when all of junior high gathers in the cafeteria to listen to a person preach and stuff and we have to wear an oxford shirt tucked into a skirt (well, only the girls, the guys can wear khakis). I hate skirts. And it's also just one giant excuse for the mean, eighty thousand year old science teacher to give out dress codes. Trust me; I'm not sure there's a kid in our school who hasn't gotten a dress code from that guy. Okay, on with the story.**

**Chapter 7**

**Max pov.**

"So are we all clear on the plan? Max? You're flock?" Shane asks.

I nod. "Anyone under thirteen stays here with Skye and Beth," out of the corner of my eye I see Fang flinch, "we break in, make sure it's completely abandoned and search for and take anything they left behind." I try not to take it as a personal insult that he actually thought we wouldn't understand the plan.

We were about to raid TDI's newly abandoned headquarters. Trying to find anything they left that would give us a clue where they went.

So we decided to travel there with in groups. Me, Fang, Iggy, and Heather in one, and Shane, Trevor, Blaze, Isabelle, and Scar are in the other. My group's job is to go check it out before the others get there and make sure the place is safe with no traps or anything. Then we send a person to report back to the other group to give them the status.

"Well then," Shane says, "let's go."

His group leaves ahead of ours while Heather gives Beth some last minute instructions.

"Okay," she says when she comes back over to us, "since today happens to be Thanksgiving Day there is probably going to be people everywhere. S o we're going to have to be careful where we fly, land, and take off. I want Fang in the back, then Iggy after that, then Max, and then I'll lead. No one go jerking around and trying to communicate unless someone's dying. Stay in formation." She starts to walk off but I stay planted. Fang understands something's wrong and doesn't move, along with Iggy.

I can't help but glare at her. She was ordering my flock around. _No one _orders my flock around like that except for me.

I shake my head. "People will notice. We should fly one on top of the other. That way it will just look like one of us."

She stops and turns around and gives me a look that practically says _are you trying to order me around? _Give her a look back that says _yeah, I am. What ya gonna do about it? _

She rolls her eyes with just irritates the heck out of me even more. "Okay, look," she crosses her arms, "we'll go with your idea. Happy?"

"Barely." I reply. I bite my lip to restrain from saying any other unwanted comments.

"Right then," we step out into the crisp morning air.

We arrive at TDI's old building and it looks completely deserted in a freakishly eerie way. The feeling is like seeing one of those old western movies where the cowboy goes into this old village and tumbleweeds roll around.

There just seemed to be nothing there. And as we enter and walk through it, it just seems more and more deserted. "So who are we going to send next to the others?" I ask.

She things for a minute. "How 'bout Fang?"

I look at Fang. He shrugs and takes off, heading back to the others. As he leaves I think about how strange he's been acting lately. He hasn't said a word to me or anyone else . . . okay, maybe with Fang that isn't all that unusual, but still. Something about him just doesn't seem the same. I try to ignore the thought.

"Let's split up." Heather suggests, no, orders to me and Iggy.

I glare at her again. She doesn't seem to notice. "Max, since you're so independent you can go alone till Fang gets back. Iggy, you can come with me."

"Or," I step up angrily, "I can take care of my own flock and Iggy can come with me and when Fang gets back he can come with us too, and since _you're _so independent _you _can go alone."

She gives me a look that's hard to read. "Whatever. Let's just not split up."

We walk through building after building, finding nothing. Finally when I start to think this is all hopeless we go into a big room, probably an office, with about ten file cabinets and a desk.

We open a few cabinets. The tenth one I open is empty, along with all the others, but on the bottom is a button, painted the same grayish color of the cabinet. I press it down carefully. As soon as I get it all the way down a wall on the opposite side of the room slides to one side. Inside it is what looks like a drawing table, slanted up slightly. Like the kind of table architects use.

The three of us go up to it. At that moment Fang and everyone else comes through the door. They come up to it too. "What the . . .?" Blaze's voice fades off as we stare at it.

On a large piece of paper lying on the table is what looks like a blueprint. But not to a house. To a weapon.

**So? Tell me what you think? I know, I was going to make it longer but . . . I have a lot to do tonight. Unfortunately. Including memorizing a script before tomorrow. Yay for me. And I have a lot of parts too. Ugh. And then mom's going to make me watch some boring TV show with her like every night (imagine that, a parent who wants you to watch TV). And study for math and Bible finals. And take a shower, no, not because of any more condiment issues. And then a bunch of other boring things I won't bother telling you because it could go on forever. Anyways, REVIEW!**

**-Kristen**


	10. The Weapon

**Hey, just to let you know, if I make any mistakes, I'm really, really tired today. Long night. So anyway, all I really have to say right now is review. So then, REVIEW! **

**Chapter 9**

**Max pov.**

We were staring at the blueprint of the weapon for like, five minutes before someone said something. Scar clears his throat. "So . . . what exactly is that?"

I get a closer look. "It looks like some kind of weapon to me. It kind of looks like some big army tank with a ton of guns and missile shooters or something."

"Yeah," Fang said quietly, "but look at those tanks on the side. They look sort of like some kind of gas tank, but it has a skull-and-crossbones sign on it."

"Could someone fill me in here?" Iggy demands and Isabelle goes on to describe the blueprint to him.

Fang definitely was right. It wasn't as simple as just a tank. Even just the blueprint of the thing screamed the words _pure evil, stay away_.

Shane goes up closer. "Whoa. Look at that." He points toward as set of numbers at the bottom of the page. It was the supposed size of the machine. I won't bore you with the exact numbers, but let me tell you, this thing would be about the size of a house.

"Someone tell me that's inches, not feet." Heather says.

"It's feet." I mutter.

"Let's go see if there are any other secret rooms we don't know about." Shane orders. Everyone starts walking around a little more but Fang stays and keeps examining the blueprint. After a while he motions me to him.

I go up to the table and he whispers, "The gas tanks are filled with hydrogen cyanide. Max, they're going to poison the air. If they have big enough amounts they could kill entire cities at a time. hydrogen cyanide is what people used to use in torcher chambers. They would poison people to death with it. If they could get this stuff into air conditioners, into homes, into pipes, heaters . . . Max, if they could do that do you know how much destruction this could cause?"

I stare at him. "If they released enough poison couldn't it get to them?"

He shakes his head and points to the blueprint, showing me a square-like thing on the side of the machine. "That's an air filtration tank. None of the poison would even reach them inside the tank. I think they plan on releasing it in some big city where it'll have a lot of effect. That or they plan on making a lot of these and taking down whole countries at a time. And see this other tank-like box right here? That's a gasoline tank. And right here, Max, this is sort of like a lighter, except it shoots flame almost. My best guess is that they're going to release the hydrogen cyanide, and then pour gasoline on the streets and buildings. Then they'll shoot the flames out and pretty much cause everything that's untouched by the cyanide to burn or blow up."

We don't talk for a minute, just stare at the piece of paper lying on that table, completely unaware that what was on this piece of paper was going to tear down the world piece by piece, and take along everyone with it, including us. "Max," Fang says quietly after a while and looks up at me, "they wouldn't have forgotten this here if they needed it. That means they have copies of it or already know how to create it. If they didn't then they definitely wouldn't have just left it here when they moved. Max, they don't _care _that they forgot it. They wanted us to know about it. They know it's so powerful that they can actually afford to give us a chance. Because they know we don't have one."

I stare at him; I can't help it. Fang was basically declaring that we were defeated. "What?" I demand. "Fang, we are not going to give in to defeat. We've been through more than anyone and survived. Fang, we can do it again. We can beat this. We just need time."

"We don't have time!" He says, frustrated, so loudly that everyone else in the room turns to look in our direction. He lowers his voice again. "They probably already have about twenty of these things made."

"Then we'll destroy them. We can beat them. Just don't EVER say it's too late or that we won't win. We will, I promise." I promise? What the heck! I don't know that! For all we know right now, Fang's probably right.

He takes a deep breath and looks at me. "Don't make promises you can't keep."

I stare back. We just lock eyes for a minute. "We should probably get going." Heather says from the other side of the room. "Fang, Max? Can one of you grab the blueprint?"

I break the eye contact and snatch up the paper, roll it up, and shove it toward Fang. "Put it in your backpack." I tell him and walk over to everyone else.

We arrive back at the Tunnel about an hour later. Everyone comes running up to us and questions about what we found. Fang throws the blueprint on the old wooden table and walks over to sit on a moldy-looking, half eaten couch Shane had brought down earlier.

Shane explains what all we found about and I inform them about Fang's discovery since he obviously wasn't going to.

But then I wonder. Did he not want them to know?

**Fang pov.**

She had pretty much run away in an argument again. _Again! _I leaned my elbow on the side of the couch. They were all talking about the blueprint but I didn't want to be any part of that right now. Right now I just wanted things to go back to what things were like when we still lived in Jeb's house before Angel was taken.

But of course, nothing ever turns out the way we want it, so it seems pretty pointless to even hope nowadays. Iggy walks over from the group. "Hey." He says.

"Hey," I reply back.

"So, what're you doing?" He asks.

"Sitting. Thinking." I answer.

"Thinking about what?" He looks at me even though I know he can't see me.

"I dunno, stuff. How I never realized how good we had it back at Jeb's before Angel was taken." I shrug.

"Yeah." He nods. "It makes you think, doesn't it?"

Neither of us says anything. "Blaze was flirting with Max again." He says finally.

I try to show no emotion. "So?"

"So, you're not going to do anything about it?" He raises an eyebrow.

"Nope." I reply.

"Jeez, Max is right, you really aren't yourself lately." He gets up and I throw a pillow at him but he dodges it and it lands on the floor.

**Okay, please review! Please? -Kristen**


	11. Ari

**Hey, I would just like to say that you guys are SOOOO encouraging . . . okay, that's about the billionth time I've said that probably, but I thank you all for being such amazing reviewers. AND EXAMS ARE OVER!!! WOHOO! Man, I hate exams. Anyway, here you go. Enjoy. **

**Chapter 10**

**Fang pov.**

It's night right now. Everyone else is sleeping, except for me and Shane. Even though we think we can trust them, Max is still paranoid and someone has to stay up. I'm sitting on one side, he's on the other. But he walks over to sit by me eventually.

"You guys don't trust us." He states, looking straight ahead.

"No," I tell him, "we trust you; Max is just really paranoid and likes to have at least one of us up. Believe me, if you knew her you'd understand it's nothing unusual."

He nods. "That blueprint we found earlier. You figured that stuff out?"

"If you look at it for a while you figure it out after a while." I tell him.

"You really think they're going to do that stuff to some city?" He asks.

"Yeah, knowing Itex, world destruction is way up there on their list, and what we've heard of TDI, its high on theirs too." I shrug.

"How're we gonna stop it?" He asks me.

I look at him. "Why are you asking _me_?"

Now he shrugs. "I dunno. You guys just seem like you've been through a lot more of this stuff than we have. We were just introduced to the whole mutant thing and world destruction. TDI's always just been about creating smaller weapons and testing them on important people but end up blowing themselves up instead."

"Oh." I reply.

"So, how'd you guys wind up here anyway?" He asks.

"Well, it's kind of a long story." I say.

He stretches out his legs. "Well, we've got all night."

So I start from when Jeb took us to his house and then Angel was kidnapped by Ari. ". . . and then we ran into you guys trying to get Nudge back." I finish.

"Wow." He stares at the wall for a bit.

"Shane, can you tell me something?" I look him directly in the eye.

"Yeah, sure, what is it?" He asks me.

"How are you sure you can trust everyone in the Tunnel Guards?" I ask.

He gives me a strange look. "Just, because. I've known them for a long time. We just all know each other well. I don't know, I just have a feeling. Why?"

"No reason. Just wondering." I take a deep breath and wonder just how well he knows his friends.

**Max pov. **

Max? Max, wake up! 

I wake up that morning to Jeb's voice.

_What? _I snap at him groggily.

Shelbyville, Kentucky! Go now, and hurry! Before it's too late! 

It takes me a moment to realize what he's talking about. TDI's new location.

I sit up. "TDI's in Shelbyville, Kentucky! Everyone get up, we're going now!"

"What?" Heather walks up to me. "How do you know?"

"Because my irritating father is in my head and works with Itex, he told me." I explain and start packing my flock's stuff.

"If he works with Itex then how can we trust him?" She smirks.

I try to think of a reply to this. "Well, he's never led us to a trap before. Now are you coming or not? Because if you aren't, we're going without you." My flock stands up, their stuff with them, awaiting orders and watching me argue with Heather.

He narrows her eyes at me briefly but then says, "Alright guys, let's go. Shane, go make up some story to tell your parents."  
He rolls his eyes. "You do realize I'm leader of the Tunnel Guards, not you?"

She smiles, "Yeah, I know."

So within thirty minutes my flock was traveling by air, thankfully without Heather this time, but we did get stuck with Skye, who, in addition to her transformation skills, could become like us, with wings. It's almost creepy. She could probably transform into a completely different person if she had to. But we had to trade in someone else to go with the Tunnel Guards. We decided on Fang, since if anything went wrong, could easily fend for himself.

Skye mostly hung behind us, not saying much, but I went back to talk to her. "Hey, how ya doing?"

She shrugs. "Good, I guess. I've never tried attaching wings without changing completely. It's pretty cool."

"Yeah," I smile and remember how Fang always got a weird look on his face whenever she had come around. Still need to figure out what that was all about.

We all arrive in a field after a while and meet back up with everyone else. Fang looks like he's ready to jump off a cliff. And soon I see why. Beth and Trevor had apparently been arguing with each other the entire time. He looked like he was about to scream.

"Okay, so now we need to find a place to camp for the night and then tomorrow we'll set out to find TDI's new location." Shane says.

So then we find a nice clearing in the middle of the woods somewhere and settle down for the night. "I call first watch." Fang says before I even have chance to sit down.

"Whatever." I mumble and fall asleep with the others.

**Fang pov. **

I was leaning against a tree when Skye walks over. "So then, Fang, you haven't told anyone about the other night, have you?" She gives a mischievously evil grin.

"I dunno. Why shouldn't I tell anyone?" I glare at her, giving away no emotion.

She glares back. "Because I can ruin your—"

"Yeah, yeah," I tell her, "I get that part. But what's it matter if anyone knows? Who was that guy, Skye?"

She stares at the ground hardly. "I've already told you, he's my cousin."

"No he's not. Who is he, Skye?" I growl.

"No one you should be worried about. What do you think? I'm working with Daniel and Rick? Absolutely not." She snickers.

"You were talking about Ari." I continue, reluctant to give up.

She bites her lip. "Well . . ."  
I stare at her and wait patiently for her to continue. She has a confused look on her face. But then the look just turns into a smile. "You're about to find out why."  
And at that moment a herd of flyboys gather around us—no wait. I get a closer look at them. They weren't flyboys. They were erasers. Real, living, alive erasers. They were back. Either they hadn't killed all of them, or they were creating them again.

Max jumps up from a dead sleep into a fighting stance.

One of the erasers walks up to her with a smile on its face.

"Hello, Max." It was Ari.

**So what do you think? Do you not love it? Do you think I should make Ari evil or good? Well, actually I have my own plot for the story, but if you people are completely against it, I might change it. Tell me what ya think. Or I might make Ari kidnap someone again. Mwa ha ha ha ha! Ooh, or someone might DIE!!!! I won't reveal the rest. So review if you don't want anyone lying in a puddle of blood . . . and that person wouldn't be Skye OR Ari . . . or some random eraser. **

**-Kristen**


	12. Seventy

**Hey peeps. Thanks for the reviews. And don't worry, I decided not to kill anyone. **_**Right now. **_**(Insert evil smile) And no one is getting kidnapped. **_**Right now. **_**(Insert another evil smile) Anyway, to whether or not Ari will be good or evil . . . just read the chapter and find out. Okay then. And this week is so gonna suck for me. This week is **_**spiritual emphasis week**_** for the junior high. Oh god, people, I once again envy you if you go to a public school. We have chapel every day of the week. Agh! It was bad enough once a week. And our temporary principal, Mr. Smith, who is currently replacing our real one while he is away in Detroit for chemotherapy, was the speaker. We were all practically dead by the time he was even half way through the chapel. Actually I may have fallen asleep at one point. I'm not kidding people, it was THAT bad. **

**Chapter 11**

**Max pov.**

I stare at the eraser in front of me. Ari? But he was dead! I SAW him die! He died twice! "Hello, Max." He says with a grin that I couldn't tell apart from evil or genuinely happy.

"Ari?" I seriously just can't do anything. I felt like I was frozen in shock to the ground.

He suddenly moves and I instinctively try to jump away, thinking he was going to punch me, but he takes me by surprise and pulls me into a stiff, awkward hug.

When he pulls away I can tell the smile on his face wasn't evil. Thank god.

"Ari? How did you . . .?" His smile vanishes.

"I don't want to talk about it." He says grimly.

I tilt my head to the side a bit but don't continue to ask questions. "Okay . . ."

Fang stomps right up to him. "What's with the erasers?" He growls.

Ari turns around to look at him. "They were brought back the same way as me. They're with me, don't worry. They won't hurt any of you. They're on our side."

Fang's eyes flare with anger. "_Our_ side? What makes you think we'll let you on _our _side?"

Ari looks kind of confused at why Fang was mad at him. I walk over to them. "Fang," I look him directly in the eye and give him a look that says, _shut up now, or die later. _

"So," I say to Ari, "then you brought them with you? How do you know if they're trustworthy?"

"I just do. Trust me, Max." He says. I hear Fang scoff from beside me. I give him a glare.

"So, can we stay with you guys then?" Ari begs.

"It's fine with me." I shrug.

"It's not fine with me." Fang mutters. I fight the urge to hit him.

"He was loyal till the end, Fang." I mutter to him.

"He has no end." Fang snaps at me and walks away.

Heather and Shane come up to us. "Ari!" Shane has an extremely mad look on his face. "What the heck are you doing here?"

"He's with us." I tell him. "He won't betray us, I swear. If you have a problem with it, then you can take your Guard and leave." I turn to Ari. "Do you know where TDI's new location is at?"

He looks puzzled for a minute. "Oh, you mean that company that teamed up with Itex? Yeah, I know where they are."

I smile. "Great." I walk over to Fang's backpack and take out the blueprint. "Have you seen this?"

His face instantly goes from puzzled to complete horror. Slowly he nods. "I've seen it. All seventy of them."

"Seventy?" I can practically see the world blowing up as I speak the word.

He nods. "There would be more but they screwed up on half the stock of them. They had to take out the gas tank because there ended up being too much fire and it all caused a catastrophic explosion that ended up blowing themselves up. So they had to start all over. So they would have had like almost two hundred."

"They're making 'em that fast?" I ask. Why? Why couldn't these things be incredibly slow to make?

"Yeah, unfortunately." He says and looks down at the ground.

"Do they have any weaknesses? Any part of the machine that could be broken? Anything?" Shane asks him.

"Max, these are tanks. Hard steel, metal, aluminum, pretty much every rock-solid piece of material found on earth. Jeez, with the recourses they have, they could probably be using moon rock." He sighs.

I think about that. Oh great. Just what we need. More indestructible weapons make by the worlds most evil people.

**Iggy pov.**

Ari? How the heck did he keep coming back to life? It was starting to get a little creepy. Was he un-killable? I pick back up some more of my wires and gadgets I was using on a new type of bomb I was testing out while Max wasn't paying any attention. She'd kill me herself if I accidentally blow something up.

I hear someone approaching. "So, you guys know Ari?" It was Isabelle.

"Yeah." I say and set the bomb down. "We know him all right. He about split up the flock forever . . . well, that was more of Fang, but he was kind of the whole main reason. And he's Max's brother."

"Oh." She says. "How'd he almost split up your flock?"

"Well, he helped us get away from Itex, Max trusted him, and Fang didn't. Fang and Max got into an argument about it, Fang took me and Gazzy to one part of America, Max took Nudge and Angel to Germany to destroy Itex. Fang always believed he could destroy Itex by his blog and by the people. Max was all destroy it ourselves, don't get anyone else involved or injured." I shrug.

"They fight a lot? Max and Fang?" She asks after a moment.

"They didn't use to. The whole Fang taking away part of the flock just kind of screwed things up. Don't ever split up the flock; you will be hated forever by Max and never trusted again." I explain.

"But she trusts him now. And she trusts Ari." She says.

"Well, I think it's just hard for her not to trust Fang. And Ari . . . I've got no idea how she changed her mind there." I tell her.

I can feel her eyes on the bomb. "What's that?"

"Bomb. Don't tell Max." I smile.

"You like blowing stuff up?" She asks.

"All the time. I'm pretty much your basic pyro." I grin at her.

"You'd love Shane's uncle." She says. "He owns basically a bomb making shop. That's where we get all our stuff. Shane sneaks it out of his shop because his uncle gave him a set of keys. The old guy never figures it out."

**Fang pov.**

I sit on a log, insanely mad. Ari! Ugh! I could kill him myself. Sure, he's Max's brother, and she trusts him. But there is NO WAY I will EVER trust him. The guy almost killed me twice!

I see Ari walking into the woods to my left when he leaves Max. I count to five and then scramble up to follow him. He walks a few minutes and then stops and says, "What are you doing?"

I inch up a little closer from behind a tree and see him scowling at Skye.

"What does it look like I'm doing? I'm trying to collect sticks for the fire." She raises an eyebrow.

"Here, I mean. How'd you trick them into getting you out of TDI? Did you threaten them too?" He snarls.

"No, they rescued me." She says with a smug smile. "I didn't do anything."

"Yeah, but how'd you trick 'em into trusting you?" He asks angrily.

"Because they can." She gives him a wicked smile.

I try to move forward but end up stepping on a stick and cracking it in half. Both of their heads whip toward me.

"Um, I was looking for . . . Total. Has anyone seen him?" I lie.

Ari storms past me and back to the campsite. Skye just glares at me. "Shut up, Fang. This," She walks up and literally gets into my face, "never happened."

She shoves me against the nearest tree and runs back to follow Ari.

I just stand there a minute. Hmm . . . that was weird. Something definitely wasn't right here. I was going to find out what it was.

**Well? Tell me what you think. Or if I did anything wrong or . . . just review, okay? -Kristen**


	13. Now Entering TDI Property

**Hey guys. I think today's spiritual emphasis week's chapel might have been even worse than yesterdays. We went into the cafeteria. But this time instead of listening to a person speak, we were listening to some retarded TAPE of a guy speak. And there weren't enough chairs so three guys came to sit with us, oh joy, and guess what. They were three of the guys who moronically exploded ketchup on me a few weeks ago. I mean, any other time if guys would sit with us I wouldn't really care. Out regular lunch table is a mixture of guys anyway. But THESE guys . . .? I would rather not have my hair dyed red AGAIN, if you know what I mean. **

**Chapter 12**

**Max pov.**

"Okay, so, where to?" Shane asks Ari.

"Just follow me." He goes to take off.

"Ari, not everyone here has wings." I explain quickly.

"Oh," He says disappointedly, "we'll then, I guess we're driving."

"Driving?" Heather raises an eyebrow.

"Yep." He motions toward a part of the woods and a big suburban come bursting through the trees.

"Uh, are we really that close to the road?" I ask, slightly annoyed that we didn't thoroughly enough check our surroundings.

He smiles and nods. "Yeah, it's a good thing too or else we'd have a heck of a time trying to get that thing in here."

The eraser driving gets out and asks, "Anyone got a license?"

"I do." Shane says. "So then, should we do the same as last time? Under thirteen you stay here? And we'll have all the erasers except Ari stay here. So then they won't know about 'em being with us just yet."

"I am not leaving the younger part of my flock with erasers. I'm sorry, Ari, I trust you, but them? Absolutely not." I shake my head reluctantly.

"Then what do you suggest?" Heather asks in irritation.

"We're all weaker from . . . well, from what they had to do to bring us back, we haven't gotten our full strength back yet. How about a couple you guys stay here with them? Like two people from the Tunnel Guard, and one from the flock, since the flock's smaller."

"Sounds fair to me." Shane says and looks at me for approval.

I think about it for a minute. I wasn't leaving a blind guy to watch the younger ones, I can tell you that much.

"Max," Iggy says, as if reading my mind, "I can do it. I know I'm blind, but I can still do it."

I stare at him. I knew Iggy was capable but . . . paranoia was my biggest problem.

"Then I can have Heather, Isabelle, and Blaze stay here too." Shane adds in.

I sigh. "Fine. Whatever. But if _anything _happens to any of them I will kill someone."

So then Shane drives, Ari is in the passengers seat giving directions, Me, Fang, and Scar are in the middle, and Trevor and Skye are in the back. Personally, I don't like this whole, younger separated from older deal they've got going on here, but I guess I can live with it for a while.

After about an hour we wind up in what looks to me like the outskirts of a bombed country after a war. Seriously, there's shrapnel, burnt wood, no trees or even grass in sight that's still alive, garbage, and even bullets lying everywhere . . . and not to mention a few skeletons. HUMAN skeletons. I gulp nervously as we pass a few of what look like military tanks.

And then we pass a large billboard sign that says, "Now entering a private land used for weaponry and explosive testing, all trespassers will be shot."

"We're now entering TDI property." Ari says quietly. "We need to ditch the car." He orders Shane to pull the car over directly in front of the sign. When he does Ari jumps out as fast as he can and runs behind the signs and we do the same. We sit there for not even ten seconds before I see a hatch on the sign pop open and something goes zooming through the air towards the car. Then there's a loud explosion. We all duck lower while the chunks of metal fly over us and are pelted with bomb scraps.

Ari counts silently to ten and then jumps up and says, "Follow me, come on!" We follow him to a small ditch in the ground about ten feet away. He pushes us in and then jumps in his self and counts to five before we hear another explosion. He stands up. "Okay, the bombs are for security issues. They're done now. But stay close to me so we don't trigger any other alarms. They should be sending guards out to see if we were killed. The destroyed car should tell them we were."

We start moving up toward TDI slowly while trying to stay down low. After a few minutes Ari tells us to stop and he drops to the ground. We do the same. I glance up to see a few white coats and guys dressed all in black. They run up to the still burning car. While they're occupied with it we make a run for it.

But we don't get far enough before we hear the crack of a gunshot and then a yelp as it hits someone in the chest . . .

**Sorry, evil cliff hanger, I know we all hate it, but I had to do it. So if you wanna know what happens and who get's shot, I expect reviews. Can we try and get five this time instead of only three or four like all the other times? Come on people, let's make a record for my story here! -Kristen **


	14. The Eliminator

**Hey, okay, I was thinking about waiting about two more days to update (Just to torture you and build up suspense) But then I thought, nah, don't want anyone to get mad and come hunting me down and torch my house down or something (Not like any of you actually even know where I live, and no, for this reason I'm not telling you, especially if in the future I kill any flock members ((I'm not saying that that's who got shot this time)) and people do get as angry as they say they get in reviews). So, anyway, here's the story. And yay! The oh-so-crappy Spiritual Emphasis Week is coming to an end! Yes! God, I hate chapel every day! It puts all the teachers in a bad mood and it makes us teens fall asleep. And it's weird, the new 5****th**** graders on our floor, like all the 5****th**** grade girls basically, have decided that they now rule the floor because they are now not on the 1****st**** floor anymore and that they can boss fourteen year olds around. Ugh! They are so annoying . . . wow that was off topic . . . okay, on with the story. Please bear with me through the first part, it's necessary, I know, don't kill me for not skipping straight to who gets shot.**

**Disclaimer: I do not own Maximum Ride or anything in it.**

**Claimer: I do own the Tunnel Guards and the plot to this story.**

**Okay, please imagine that at the top of every single chapter, because I'll never remember to put that up on all of 'em. **

**Chapter 13**

**Some random white coat named Henry's pov.**

"Code five!" Daniel yelled through the intercom. "Billboard launch. Three area two-seven-twelve-three white coats check for pedestrians."

I was one of those people. The head agent knocked three of us on the head. "Go, now!"

The three of us march down the road. God, I hated TDI. I hated Daniel. Everything was fine before they came. What was wrong with the director? Why had she teamed up with these morons? All they did was boss us around. And now this complete world domination? They were gonna end up killing themselves and us with this whole plan.

And why weren't we allowed to use golf carts to get over to the billboard? If there were any people left they'd probably have gotten away by now.

Finally we reach the site. The car had definitely been blown up. I go up to inspect it. Not much was left except the frame. I see the license plate and go to grab it but stop with my hand midway down. It was an Itex license plate. The people driving this car were from Itex, they knew all our tricks here. They were still alive.

I look around for the ditch. And see a couple vague figures get up to start running. I pull out my gun, aim, and fire at the nearest one.

**Max pov.**

I turn around as fast as I can to see who had been shot.

Heather. She collapsed down onto the dusty ground and moaned in pain, red blood collecting in a pile around her leg. Good, it was only her leg.

Suddenly bullets were flying and zooming all around us. "Get down!" I yell at everyone. "Fang, when you get a chance fly her back to the campsite and see what Iggy can do for her." I order.

He nods. I looked at Shane. He just looked completely confused. Some leader he is. I guess things were up to me again. I can't help grinning. Just the way I liked it.

Maximum! Pay attention! I hear Jeb yell at me.

I look up to see a bullet aiming straight at my head and duck down before it can hit me. It lands in the dirt nearby. That was when I realized we had to get out of here.

"We gotta go!" I tell the others. "Now! We can come back some other day!"

They all nod. Shane picks up Heather and we start running back to the road, dodging bullets the whole time. I felt an explosion behind us, but I didn't dare look back to see what happened. Once we were a good distance away we stop for a moment.

"Okay, Fang, you and Skye fly back to the campsite. Make sure you're not being followed. Trevor, Shane, and Scar, do you think you can run for it and still get away?" I ask.

Shane bites his lip and looks around. "Where would we run to? They're bound to catch up with us. What if they send one of those tank things at us?"

"Eliminators." Ari mumbles. We all turn to look at him,

"They call them Eliminators. They haven't used any yet for real. But they might. I'm not sure they would for just us though." Ari explains.

"Okay," I say, "Eliminators. Whatever. Umm . . ."

At that moment Beth teleports directly in front of us.

She looks around us. "I knew it, you guys were in trouble. Okay, you need outa here?" She asks.

I'm about to question her how she knew we were in trouble but I sensed now was not the best time. I nod in reply.

"Well then, everyone make a circle and hold hands." We do as told, feeling like little preschoolers.

"Okay, no one let go. Got it?" As soon as the words leave her mouth we start hearing a low grumbling sound and the ground literally starts to shake.

We all instinctively let go of each other and look around. For a while we don't see anything, but then I see it. My eyes widen about as wide as they go. Fang gives a soft, "Whoa."

"Oh my god," Beth says and tilts her head to the side.

About fifty meters in front of us was an Eliminator. It was HUGE! Like the size of a building. It was hovering loudly above the ground. It looked exactly like it did in the blueprint. There was what looked like missile launchers on the sides. It even had the giant tank on its side.

I stared at the bottom. It looked like steam was coming out of it. Suddenly there's a loud screech comes from Heather. We all turn to look at her. She's holding her chest and gasping. "I CAN'T BREATHE!" She screams and squirms around in Shane's arms. Shane looks at me, terror running through his dark eyes.

Then Beth started coughing and kept coughing like she was having a cough attack. Fang started taking hard, sharp breaths.

And then it hit me. I felt like something had started filling up my lungs, like they were expanding or something. What the freak was going on? I took a big gulp of air but ended up releasing it as soon as I had taken it and started choking.

The steam wasn't steam. They had released the poison.

**Sorry it's so short. And sorry, another cliff hanger. It would be a lot longer but I have a ton of homework tonight. (READ THIS! IMPORTANT!) Would you guys rather me keep writing these shorter chapters like every day like I'm doing now, or just write really, really long ones about five times the size of this chapter and post it like every Wednesday or something? Tell me what ya think? REVIEW! **


	15. The Past is back again

**Hi people, I would like to thank my last chapter's reviewers (coughliveurlifexx33coughcough). I understand that there was a technical glitch; my computer had it too, so I'll spare you the punishment this time. (I'm not even going to tell you what the punishment is, but believe me, you won't like it) And I would like to thank ilovetwilight99 for actually taking the time to PM me and explain that her review box was messed up. And I don't want people to get mad at me for doing something in the Tunnel that I know everyone will HATE (I hate it myself actually), so I'm gonna let it slide. But let this be your warning!! (And if you wanna go back and review that chapter, I'm totally fine with that. but you gotta review THIS chapter too! Just saying)**

**Chapter 14**

**Max pov.**

"Beth get us out of here!" I manage to croak.

Heather screams again, talk about dramatic. Everyone connects hands again. Suddenly I have the feeling that I'm being stretched in half and then there's a loud crack and then we're back at the campsite. I take large gulps of fresh air. Heather is lying on the ground clutching her leg. "Iggy!" I yell once I get my breath back.

Iggy runs over to us. "Yeah?"

I pull him over to Heather and explain. He gently runs his hand over the wound. "Something doesn't feel right." He says quietly.

"Well." Shane says irritably, "There _is _a bullet in her leg."

"I can see that—well, feel . . . but I think it has an infection or something." He stands up with a confused look on his face.

"Let me see." I shove him out of the way.

Iggy was definitely right. The wound was turning . . . a greenish color. "We gotta get her to a hospital. Shane, does she have normal human blood?"

He shakes his head. "Avian. I guess."

I groan. "Great. We all know we need this again."

"We're going with them?" Fang asks softly and I can tell he dreaded my answer.

I nod. "Fang, she can't use their blood."

"So? Do they really need blood?" He asks.

I stare at him. "Remember when we had to take YOU to the hospital and both me and Iggy had to donate blood? You would not be alive if we didn't do that."

"Max, she has a LEG injury." He complains.

"Fang, we're going. That's that." God, what was with him these days?

Maybe you should have Fang and the younger ones stay here, that way if anything happens then they'll be safe. Jeb implies.

I relay this info to everyone else. Angel shakes her head. "I wanna go with you Max."

"Yeah." Nudge agrees.

"We're going too." Iggy says and Gazzy nods in agreement.

I sigh. "Alright. Fang, you can either come, or stay here. Which would you rather do?"

"I guess I'll come." He grumbles.

Another one of Ari's eraser friends pulls up another car. I'm about to ask where they're getting these from but I decide it's not important at the moment.

We drive for about two minutes (Believe me, if erasers drove people around normally, no one would ever be late again) and then we're at the hospital.

Shane picks Heather up, ignoring her protests that she can walk on her own, and we walk into the hospital. Imagine what this would look like, people. The six of us, plus all of the Tunnel Guards . . . um, that's a lot of people walking into a tiny country hospital at once, so immediately all the attention is focused on us.

"She was shot by a bullet in the leg. No, we don't know who did it. It was probably just some random drunk guy on the streets." Shane makes up and says to the receptionist.

The lady gives a quick look at Heather's blood encrusted leg and pages a doctor to wheel her off to a room in a wheelchair. Only moments later the doctor comes back out, with a strange look on his face. "Wings . . ." I hear him muttering.

I see him talking to some more doctors and then he comes over to us. "I, uh, take it your friend doesn't take normal blood."

I'll give him a point for not freaking out like a basket case. Me and Fang exchange glances and stand up. "We have the same blood." I reply and follow him into a room where he collects a couple pints of blood from each of us, the whole time I was dreading this whole scene that I knew was going to happen. The one where the feds get involved.

A young nurse leads us back to the lobby and then returns later with a tray of food for each of us . . . wow, good service too? There's gotta be a catch. Wait, who was gonna pay for all this? Oh well, guess we'll decide on that later.

After about two hours of waiting finally a doctor comes out of the operating room, sweating and looking exhausted. He walks over toward us. Unfortunately, at that moment a couple feds walk through the hospital entrance, cause there's no possible way for us to go into a hospital without the feds getting involved, right? But they see us talking to the doctor and wait to the side of the door.

"Well, we got the bullet removed but unfortunately her left leg will be permanently paralyzed. There was nothing we could do. Some kind of chemical or something must have been released. And the bullet didn't look quite right. We're having a hard time determining what kind it is, but so far we have no matches." The doctor says.

Shane nods. "When will we be able to see her?"

"In about an hour or so. She's still recuperating." The doctor says and then walks away. And almost as soon as he's gone the feds come up to us.

"FBI." One of them explains, as if we didn't already know. "We're reported to take you guys in for questioning."

Oh, just great. Is there ever a happy ending.

"No," a female voice says from the door, "we're not taking them in."

And just because our past has recently decided to come back and haunt us, guess who was standing at the door.

Anne Walker.

**So? Please, can I get some reviews this time? Tell me what you think? Or else! Just kidding, I won't hurt anyone. I'm too nice to do that . . . so everyone **_**thinks**_**. REVIEW! REVIEW! REVIEW! Believe me, you DON"T want to see my bad side. Mwa ha ha ha ha! -Kristen**


	16. Truce

**Hi!!! I'm happy right now . . . and I don't even know why . . . does anyone else get really happy when they're tired . . .? Hyper and happy and random is rare with me. To tell you the truth normally I'm all, sit in my room, be completely anti-social. I'm not kidding. All I do right now in my life is eat, sleep, type, read, write, and ice skate. I **_**live **_**on my computer so much it's not even funny. Okay, on with the story. Oh, and if I ever forget to reply to your reviews, which I normally do, I'm REALLY sorry. You see, I get short term memory loss and forget who I replied to and who I didn't. So for those of you I forgot to, forgive me, I can be a moron sometimes. **

**Chapter 15**

**Max pov.**

Anne? Nooo! Why? What was going on here? That would be creepy if Anne turned out to be good too. Then what? The only thing that would be left after that is for the director to come up and give me a hug, which I would reply to with a punch in the stomach.

She smiles. "Maximum, good to see you again."

I crack my knuckles, "Oh, you won't be seeing anything for much longer after we're through with you."

She raises an eyebrow, "You haven't changed a bit, have you?"

I smiles and shake my head. "What do you want now? Do you want to apply us back up in school again?"

She shakes her head. "Nope. I just heard there were a couple of bird kids in town. Hmm, sorry to hear about your friends leg. They were using test bullets. But I really didn't want them to use them just yet. But Daniel insisted. Do you think they'll have to amputate Heather's leg?"

At that comment Shane's eyes flare. He starts to jerk toward her but Fang reaches out and blocks him with his arm.

Anne smiles evilly again. "Ahh, Fang, you looks exactly the same too."

"Okay." I snarl. "Cut to the chase. What do you want?"

Anne walks over to the waiting area's benches, the other feds right behind her, and sits down gracefully in one of the chairs. "I don't know. A truce maybe."

I stare at her like she's the world's biggest nutcase (Which she is, by the way), and reply, "A truce? Are you serious?"

She nods. I think about that. And did I believe it? Nope, no way.

"Look Max," she says with a voice that I think is supposed to be convincing, but to me it just looks plain evil, "I know we haven't gotten along in the past—"

I scoff and she glares at me then continues. "As I was saying, I know we haven't gotten along in the past, but people forgive and forget right?"

"No, not me." I narrow my eyes at her.

She shrugs and stands back up, and walks right over to Ari. "What about this? He kidnapped Angel, almost killed Fang twice, attacked you so many times. He even helped out with switching you with Max II."

My eyes flare. "I decide when and when not to make exceptions."

She get's up into my face. "But _Ari_? The kid's part eraser. He's a murderer."

"So are you." I reply smugly.

"I'm not part eraser." She almost looks taken aback.

"No, but you're a murderer." I cross my arms.

"So we're on the same page here, then. If you can forgive that scum-blooded freak, then I think we can work together just fine." She says with a smirk on her face.

Before I know what's happening Fang had pinned her against the wall and was snarling, "He has the same blood as Max. He's _not_ scum-blooded."

Even the feds seemed momentarily clueless. But once they realized what was happening they started to run over to help Anne.

But Anne holds up an arm and jerks away from Fang's grasp. He doesn't try to grab her back, just let's go.

Anne walks back over to the door. "Come on guys." Then she turns to us. "We were offering you help. Protection. Safety. But you turned it down. When it all ends you'll go down with everyone else."

"I'd rather have it that way than work with you." I say back to her.

She smiles. "Alright then. But you haven't seen the last of us. But the next time you do, it _will _be your last. The last thing you'll _ever_ see."

And with that she strides right out the door, the feds right behind her heels.

What just happened? Did she really just leave? Just like that? No explosion? No gun fight? Fist fight? Nothing? Something definitely wasn't right here.

**Fang pov. **

I stroll around the hospital waiting room for a while, just walking in circles; Max's eyes following my feet; Angel and Nudge and Laurie all talking quietly; Jason and Gazzy sitting in a corner trying to hide the fact that they were messing with a bomb; Iggy was explaining something about grenades to Isabelle; Shane and Blaze were walking around, looking at some of the photos on the wall; Scar and Beth had fallen asleep; and Skye and Trevor were murmuring quietly to each other.

Ari walks up to me. "Fang?" I turn to him in response, not saying anything.

"I just wanted to thank you, for sticking up for me when she called me scum-blooded." He says quietly.

I look at him hardly and give him my best death glare. "Okay, let's get some things straight here. I was sticking up for Max, not you. You may not be scum-blooded, but you're still the world's biggest cretin and I will never trust you. I don't know what's running through Max's head, but I don't believe you're trustworthy, no matter how many times you've saved anyone's lives. You've still killed thousands of them, and no matter how many you save, you can't replace them."

He almost looks hurt but I don't care. "Max trusts me."  
"Yeah well, I don't know why. As I said, I don't know what's running through Max's head." I stare at him at him angrily.

"Fang, you can trust me. Maybe that's what's going through my head." Max says, suddenly standing next to me and giving me her worst glare.

"I trust you Max, just not him." I tell her. Then her eyes turn harder than I've ever seen them.

"If you really trusted me then you'd trust my opinion and trust him." She storms through the door of the hospital.

Ari doesn't say anything, just sits down in an empty chair.

I run out the door to try and find her. I see her sitting on a log but as I approach it she says, "If you even think about coming over here I'll hurt you."

I stare at her back a few moments longer and then go back inside.

**Don't worry; Anne will be in the next chapter. I'm not through with her just yet. (Everyone gives a groan) But I think you'll like this next chapter. Well . . . if you hate Anne you will, at least. That's all I'm saying. Oh, and don't be surprised if I post two chapters today. I'm really bored. But I have come to a decision. If I get five reviews in one day, then, if it's not midnight or anything on a school night, then I'll post another chapter. So I advise you to review. –Kristen **


	17. New York City

**THIS IS IMPORTANT!!!!! Okay, now that I have your attention, I'm having a poll on my profile that is going to determine what my next story is going to be about. So READ IT AND VOTE! Please? And I know I didn't get my five reviews but it bothers the heck out of my not having the story on the first page. So next time though if you ever want two chapters in a row, gimme give reviews. Got it? And I thank the people who actually do/did review. Anyway, on with the story. (Oh and, mwa ha ha ha ha, Anne must die!!!) (And I'm sorry, but shot and killed just won't work, so stop chanting!)**

**Chapter 16**

**Max pov.**

About an hour after Anne so strangely left we were allowed to go in and see Heather. She looked a lot paler than usual and like she was going to throw up. Personally though, I couldn't get over how Anne had just left. Stuff like that jus doesn't happen. I bet you anything they were gonna blow the hospital up or something.

We all spend the night on mats on the floor of Heather's room. The next day the Tunnel Guards decide to stay with Heather in the hospital but me and my flock and Ari had to get outa there so we set out to find the nearest Starbucks so Fang could update his beloved blog.

When we find one we're about to walk in but there's a big sign on the door that says _closed, due to be demolished_.

"I guess we're going somewhere else then." Fang says.

I look inside and you'll never believe what I saw. Anne was inside with a couple other people, obviously FBI agents, looking at a piece of paper on a table.

Then suddenly Angel started running towards a large group of bushed a little ways off and I run after her, the flock instinctively following. "Get down." She whispers when we reach her.

We crouch down beside her behind the bushes and wait. Sure enough, only moments later, a large black van arrives in the parking lot. A couple men in black jump out, looking like they came straight out of a Mission: Impossible movie.

"They're from TDI. They call 'em agents." Ari explains quietly so we're not heard.

The few men duck down and sort of army crawl down below the windows and when they get to the building one of them sticks something on the wall. They quickly crawl back to the van and it goes swerving away.

"Cover your ears." Angel warns and not even seconds later a huge explosion practically knocks us over. I sit up to see what had happened. They had blown up the Starbucks. **(A/N-that was for you liveurlifexx33-and all who don't like Starbucks-oh, and Anne too) **

When things stop falling from the explosion I stand up and walk over and pick through the rubble. Finally I find what I was looking for. Anne was lying beneath heaps of charred wood. She was dead. Along with all of the feds.

I see a small burnt piece of paper in her hand. I pry it out of her cold, lifeless fingers. It was only a small piece, but it was better than nothing. I looked at it.

It had the name of a city on it. New York City. It had a date on it. 3/4/08. And then it had the word, _Elimination _scrawled on it. Oh my god. They were going to destroy New York City. That was the most populated city in America.

And then it hit me. TDI and Itex had killed one of their own . . . but what if Anne really _wasn't _with them? But if she wasn't with them, then who was she with?

**I know it's short, but be glad I even gave it to you at all. Twice in a day? Just be happy and thankful. And don't forget to visit my profile and vote. Oh, and something I forgot to add to the poll, if you want my next story to be the sequel to The Tunnel instead of something new, then tell me in a review or PM me or something. -Kristen**


	18. Let's do this

**Hi! DON'T FORGET TO VOTE ON MY POLL ON MY PROFILE!!!!!! (If I say please will you?) And I thank all who already had, and all who have reviewed many times. Okay, so, here's the story.**

**Chapter 17**

**Max pov. **

"You're kidding!" Shane practically yells as I tell him about what happened back at the Starbucks. "Why would they kill her? Are you sure it was TDI?"

Ari nods. "It was definitely TDI."

Fang speaks up, "What if TDI and Itex didn't really team up? Maybe TDI was holding Itex kind of against their will. Like TDI dictated them or something. If that happened then Anne could have escaped from them for a while to come to us to try and get our help. When that didn't work then she went to the FBI and was showing them something about the Eliminator. TDI didn't want the government to know so they had to get rid of them somehow so they blew them up."

"But she had the feds with her when she came to us." Nudge points out.

Fang thinks a moment. "I guess she wanted them to trust her so she agreed to show us a couple of bird kids and a non-killable eraser."

I glare at him. He shrugs. "What? You can't."

"Okay," I say, "there's a start. So what do we do about it?"

Everyone's quiet. Then Heather says, "We still need to get Hayley out of there."

Shane nods his head slightly. "But first we need to get _you _out of _here_."

"What's the point?" She grumbles. "I still won't be able to walk without crutches."

Shane groans and then after that it's silent again.

About two days later Heather's cleared to get out of the hospital. When I ask about the price the receptionist just says, "It's not like we make any money out here in the middle of nowhere anyway. Besides, I'm pretty sure you kids don't have the money. But the next time we see you here you're gonna have to pay something."

Amazingly Heather can still fly. I guess it's not that big of a surprise since you don't really need your legs to fly.

"So, where to next?" I ask Shane.

"I'm not really sure." He admits.

"I think if we're gonna try to break back into TDI we need a new tactic." Iggy implies.

"The next time we're breaking in we're not going by car." I mumble.

"Then how do you suppose we're supposed get there? Not all of us have contractible wings." Trevor says.

"Not everyone will be going." I state, but Shane looks mad.

"I think I would like to be part of the rescue team saving my own sister." He says angrily.

"I know." I say.

"They have underground tunnels beneath it." Skye says quietly. Everyone turns to her in shock.

Shane raises an eyebrow. "And you didn't share this with us before, why?"

"I didn't really think it was important. They have a lot of chambers down there that they used to use as gas chambers but they're abandoned now." She says.

Angel continues for her, "Some of us can take the tunnels down below. One of them leads underneath the prison chambers. There's a trapdoor-like thing that leads to the one Hayley is in. We can go through it while the guards are distracted and get her."

Shane nods. "Aright. Sounds good to me. Max?"

"Yep. When we doing it?" I reply.

He smiles. "Now?"

I smile back. "Why not?"

"Okay then." He starts coming up with a plan. "Heather, you're gonna have to stay here, sorry. Iggy, Gazzy, Isabelle, you guys can create a diversion. Me, Blaze, Ari, Angel, Nudge, and Trevor will be in the tunnels. Max, Fang, and Beth, you guys break into some of the offices and take as much as you can. Skye, you're disabling the security cameras. Everyone got it? Good. Let's go."

A little while later we're all standing just a little ways away from TDI, going over the plan in a little more detail.

"And if anyone see's any Eliminators up and running," I imply, "abort."

They all now. "Alright." Shane says, let's do this."

**Sorry, once again short, but I've been insanely busy today and I'll try to have a longer one Monday. Please review! And don't forget to vote on the poll on my profile! If you do then I'll stop reminding you. -Kristen**


	19. Not the time to have a mental breakdown

**Sup people? Thanks for the reviews. So I have had some requests for a little more romance here and there. Would you people like that? I really appreciate your guy's opinions and (I know this sounds completely messed up) and kind of . . . **_**like it **_**when you tell me what I'm doing wrong and if you think I should add some stuff. Um, that seriously doesn't mean in reviews be all, "I hated it, it was the worst thing I've ever read! Your characters suck! The story sucks! You suck!" Actually, that's just a little TOO much criticism . . . unless that is what you truly feel about the story . . . then I guess you can say that . . . but I still love nice reviews saying how great the story is! Anyway, in chapter 19 I'm putting more Max and Fang than I have been. And if you like that stuff I think you'll enjoy it. If you don't . . . well, your just gonna have to get over it and live through that chapter. Review! LONG CHAPTER!!!**

**Chapter 18**

**Iggy pov. **

So Isabelle, Gazzy, and I were on our way to TDI/Itex. Since Isabelle doesn't have wings I had to carry her and fly . . . which was kind of awkward. And hard. I guess I have to give it to Fang for all those times he flew and carried Max for hours on end.

Everyone had decided to split up so it would make us harder to track if they were tracking us.

"Oh my god." Isabelle gasps.

"What?" I ask.

"We're there." She says quietly and then starts to describe the settings. "There's a gigantic wall. At least over fifty feet high. Maybe ten feet thick even. On one side of the wall is a small guard house. There are thirty men there in black and they all have rifles. Every forty or so feet there are missile launchers on the tops of the walls. Cameras are everywhere. They have about two of those Eliminator things circling the whole perimeter. Inside the wall there's almost fifty different buildings and they're all pretty big. There are ten guards marching around outside each side of the wall. There are four walls. On each corner of the wall there's a castle-like tower with a guard in each of them. All have guns and binoculars. Iggy, I'm starting to think this is impossible."

I can hear doubt in her voice. TDI . . . it had to be huge from her description. Wow . . .

"Okay," I say, trying to cheer them up. I think Gazzy was just completely speechless. "Let's create a diversion."

I motion to Gazzy to reach into my backpack. "Take out all the bombs and grenades in there, got it?"

I can feel him fly over and reach into my backpack. "How many do I have in there?" I ask.

He thinks for a moment. "About three mini-bombs and almost ten grenades. Are we using them all at once or saving some?"

"Use two bombs, five grenades." I think for a moment and then the best idea I have ever come up with pops into my mind. "Gazzy, throw one down on the guard gate, and a couple over the walls. Then go back and find Max. I've got an idea."

**Skye pov.**

I fly toward TDI. I was a moth. The smallest moth I could be. I couldn't risk getting caught. If they caught _me _they would surely kill me; no doubt about it. Straight to the dogs, as they used to say.

I was heading toward their built-in surveillance room in the wall. They had built in this little stone room with a small door and one window where they keep a watch over everything. I go up as close to the wall as I can where I know the cameras fail to see and turn back to my normal self.

I stand with my back against the wall as I hear the bomb go off in perfect timing, taking deep breaths.

What am I doing? I shouldn't have come. What if Daniel says something to them? If we get caught . . . I didn't tell him about the ambush . . . god, I'm loosing my mind! I can't think straight.

"Why now?" I mutter to myself. "This is not the time to have a mental breakdown and test loyalties!" I command myself.

My brain feels like something exploded in my head and not in a TDI building.

Daniel's gonna kill me! Though he might just kill everyone else too and I won't have to worry about it.

I bang the back of my head once against the wall. Well, while we're here, I might as well just go with the flow. Besides, it's too late now. Daniel's figured out something is wrong for sure by now.

Time to get moving.

I peer over the window in the wall to make sure no ones there. But they're all fussing over the blown-up building while a man yells frantically at Daniel, pointing to a piece of shrapnel in his hand like it was all the metal's fault. Idiot! The door opens and they run out. I immediately transform into a blade of grass and lie on the ground until they're gone.

When they are gone I turn back to myself and look in the window. There's only five men in there.

I try and remember what the key to the room looked like and turned my index finger into the shape of the key. I stick it in and turn the knob quietly. The men look up from the monitors and I turn myself into a lion and shred them to pieces until they're just barely left alive, not capable of remembering anything to tell Daniel. I transform back.

I hooked up Shane's laptop to the main surveillance computer.

I hacked through the code and shut off all electricity in all the buildings. But when I look at the TVs' that are connected to the surveillance cameras they're still on. I look out the windows. All the other power is on. No one's noticed yet. No wait, a man is running out of a building and yelling something at Daniel.

"Crap!" I say under my breath. "Back-up battery."

I don't have time to locate it so I just grab the fire extinguisher and start smashing the TV's. When I'm done I hear footsteps running this way. If I go out the door they'll see me!

I look around quickly and see my opportunity. I throw the fire extinguisher out the window to break the glass then I jump out after it.

**Max pov.**

I'll have to admit. I think we were doing pretty well. Everything seemed to be going right along with our plan. Me and Fang hovered silently above TDI which was now basically in flames. Gazzy had just left after telling us Iggy's plan which I had approved.

Once we were inside some of the buildings looking around Beth would pop in and join us with her teleportation. I look at my watch. "Let's go." I tell him.

We start to slowly descend down to TDI. Fang hadn't said much to me or anyone else for that matter, but I'd set things right with him later.

We pick a building and land beside it. No one even noticed us. Morons. Even Itex had more brains than that. From the outside it may look scary but from the inside it was no better than Itex alone.

We crack the door down with one kick and go inside. It looked like an office. I run over to one of the desks. It had a drawer with a lock on it. I smile. But in his hurry the guy had left the key on top of the desk.

I pick it up and jab it into the hole. It clicks and slides open. I take out all of the files and shove them into Fang's backpack.

Beth appears then. "Hey, find anything?"

I shrug, Fang says, "Look at this."  
We both walk over to him. He's staring at a giant piece of paper on a wall. It's a diagram of New York City. Complete with sewage lines, streets, tunnels, and old abandoned buildings, everything you can imagine.

Fang rips it off and stuffs it down his backpack along with the other files. "We should go." I tell them afterward. "Beth you should teleport down into the tunnels and see if they got Hayley yet."

She nods and disappears. Me and Fang sprint out the door and back up into the sky. But this time, people do shoot at us.

**Angel pov.**

We ran as fast as we could through the tunnels and when we finally got to the spot Skye had showed me in my head we stopped. Shane feels for the trapdoor and then Beth appears. Shane nods at her and then goes back to work.

When he finds it he pulls on the handle and it swings open. The door wasn't big enough for him or anyone else to climb through it so he motions for me.

He picks me up and helps me through. In a corner I see a little girl crying. She looks up when she see's me. "Hayley?" I ask.

She nods.

"We're gonna get you outa here." I tell her and grab her thin wrist.

I pull her down with me through the trap door and Shane picks her up. She cries into his shoulder.

Beth instructs us all to hold hands and then transports us back to the campsite.

**Max pov.**

When Fang and I fly back up through the sky, dodging billions of bullets, we meet up with Iggy, Gazzy, and Isabelle. "Okay." I tell Gazzy. "Now."  
He get's a grin on his face. I swear, if he were any ordinary child I would be so worried about his sanity (What normal eight year olds are THAT obsessed with bombs?).

He reaches into his pocket, pulls down a bomb and takes aim at one of the Eliminators. He throws it down and it hits it perfectly where the hydrogen cyanide tank is and it sets off the biggest explosion I've seen. Lucky for us that hydrogen cyanide was flammable.

**So what do you think? And I do thank the person who actually was the one who pointed out the hydrogen cyanide WAS flammable. I suck in all matters of science. So don't forget to review. And I'm going to have my poll up until I finish my story, which will still be for a while. ******** -Kristen**


	20. Celebration

**Sorry it's a day late, but I think you can live. Internet was down . . . again . . . and I was pounded insanely with homework. NOTICE!!! I will not be updating again until Monday. Sorry, but I'll be in Tennessee for another skating competition. If I'm lucky maybe Sunday. I doubt it though. Thanks for the reviews! And this chapter is for those of you who like romance. This chapter was made especially for you. **

**Chapter 19 **

**Max pov.**

The next day we're back at the Tunnel sitting on the ground with a ton of food from Shane's house's refrigerator to celebrate getting Hayley back. You can bet his parents were happy too for that matter. They were so happy they didn't even notice almost all the food they had was gone.

Unfortunately we had to tell everything to Hayley. About us and our wings too. But oh well. We had destroyed at least half of TDI's new base. I call that a pretty good victory.

Shane even got a hold of some glasses we could drink out of. I can't even remember the last time I drank out of a glass . . .

Shane pours everyone some water and raises his glass. "I know these past few days we've all had our differences. I know we haven't always gotten along, but still. Max, I'd like to thank your flock for helping us get my sister back." He pauses. "And I know we probably wouldn't have gotten this far if it weren't for you."

We all clank glasses and then Heather speaks up. "Max, I know we haven't gotten on very well. I guess I'd just like to say that I admit you're a better leader than I thought." Which I guess I should take as a complement since that's probably the best you can get out of Heather.

We chow down on our food and it's all completely gone in a matter of seconds. Literally.

That night I'm sitting on the old musty couch on my watch, just staring at my flock and watching them sleep.

A couple of us were still up. Me, Shane, Fang, and Skye. It was only about eight o'clock but everyone was exhausted so they all decided to crash early. We don't get many days like this anymore.

Shane was talking quietly to Skye. Fang was just kind of staring out into midair.

I sigh and lean down on the couch. It felt so good to lie down on something soft after the past days you wouldn't even believe it.

"You know I do trust you." My eyes pop open to see Fang hovering over me. I sit up and make room for him to sit down but he shakes his head. "Let's take a walk."

I stand up and follow him out of the main Tunnel. "What do you mean you do trust me?" I ask him.

He stares at me. "When you said that if I trusted you then you'd trust my opinion and trust Ari."

"Oh." I say and turn my head straight forward, breaking the eye contact.

"Max." He says, "I'm tired of fighting."

I'm forced to turn my head back to look at him.

"I trust you, Max. The only reason I don't trust him is because I'm worried something will happen to the flock. To you." He looks at me straight in the eye and I see a part of Fang I never even knew existed. A Fang that had emotion.

"Sorry I yelled at you the other day. I don't know, I guess I was just frustrated or something." I tell him, starting to feel guilty.

He nods his head but doesn't say anything else.

We keep walking for a while and then he says, "Follow me, I want to show you something."

He leads me down tunnel after tunnel and then we come to a door. He pushes open the door and we walk through it and out into the dim sunset day. We were on a cliff over a large clear river with the last of the sun shining over it. It was truly a beautiful sight. "Wow . . ."

I walk a little closer to the edge and just stand there, looking down at the water.

I felt Fang's arms wrap around me and for a while we just stand like that. And just for that moment I felt like everything really was going to be alright.

Eventually he turns me around and kisses me on the lips and then let's go. We head back to the Tunnel. When we walk back in I wish we hadn't. The comfortable feeling of security had now completely disappeared. Because when we entered the Tunnel Daniel and Rick were standing there waiting for us. Everyone was bound and gagged and there were flyboys everywhere. "Hello Max." Rick says with a sly smile. Oh great.

**Sorry it's not very long but I have a lot to do. Review! And remember, no more updates till Monday. Sorry, blame my skating coach. -Kristen**


	21. Confessions

_**I HATE CHILI'S!!!!!!!**_** Okay, you all know the restaurant Chili's right? Well, if you do and you LIKE their food **_**CURSE YOU ALL! THEY COULD HAVE KILLED ME WITH CHICKEN STRIPS!! **_**Okay, I know that sounds ironic and retarded but I'm dead serious. I have a VERY severe food allergy to every kind of nut possible. If it's a nut, you name it, I'm DEATHLY allergic to it. If I ate a peanut it would kill me. So anyway, we went to Tennessee for my skating team's last competition for Nationals and before practice we decide to eat at Chili's. Well, I had never had their food before so we decided to try it. We go in, my mom explains the whole allergy ordeal, needs to make sure food is not contaminated thing and the waitress said she would check. I order chicken strips, because we figured, how could they contaminate **_**chicken**_**? So the girl brings our food out and my mom asks if she had checked to make sure the food was okay for me to eat and she's like, "Oh, yeah, sure." So I try a bite and like five minutes later I have a reaction. I thank the Lord that it was a mild reaction or I would've ended up in the hospital (I'm terrified of hospitals by the way). Allergic reactions, my friends, are not fun. If you have never had one you are REALLY insanely lucky. First you start to feel like there's a huge lump in your throat and then your chest kind of get's tight and it starts to get hard to breathe. (Luckily I realized I was having a reaction at this stage and took a huge dose of Benadryl before anything worse happens) And then it starts to hurt in your chest and your start throwing up and I think it's called an anaflectic attack or something like that where your throat actually CLOSES up ALL THE WAY and you can't breathe at all. It's a really scary thing. Okay, I think this A/N is long enough so on with the story.**

**Chapter 20**

**Max pov.**

I watch as Daniel walks around the Tunnel with a smug look on his face. He picks up an apple that was left over from our dinner and tosses it slightly up and down in his palm. "Maximum, Fang, how nice of you to join your flock once more. You know this really is a nice tunnel. Could use some light though. Bit dull for my tastes but I suppose that when you're a mutant freak things are different around the house, eh?"

"Yes, I think it is rather evil-maniac oriented in here, isn't it? You should feel right at home." I smirk.

He raises an eyebrow. "Still into playing games with your authorities, huh? Well, darling, I'm afraid in this world playing games is only going to get you killed sooner."

"You're speaking from experience right? I always knew there was something about you that seemed half dead. What happened to your heart? Did you get hurt and decide to cut it out and hang it on your mantle to show the world that you're an emotionless blurb in this world?" I snicker at him and he set's down the apple and takes a step closer to me and Fang.

"Really? I thought the same thing when I was reading the files about your pal there." He cocks his head and looks at Fang briefly.

I have to restrain myself from killing him on the spot. "Well then. Shall we get on with this meeting before my heartless pal here rips out the rest of your organs and splatters them on the freeway for your wife to find?"

For a moment his eyes grow cold and I can tell I've hit a nerve. "Ah," I say and walk around, circling him, "so there is a wife."

Rick steps into our conversation and motions for the flyboys to stay put. "Sit down." He orders.

"Make me." I snarl at him.

He nods. "Alright then." He snaps his fingers and at least fifty flyboys are shoving both me and Fang onto the hard metal floor. How could they fit them all in here?  
"Okay." I growl. "We're sitting. What the heck do you want with us? Oh, right. Now I remember. You want revenge because we blew up your new headquarters." I shake my head for effect. "What a shame really. Those Eliminators of yours really are very flammable. Blow up quite easily don't they? You should fix that."

Daniel gives a creepy smile and turns and nods at Rick who pulls out a monitor. He speaks into it, "Bring her in."

About a dozen or so flyboys come in carrying a kicking and screaming Skye. Her hair is disheveled and she is practically drenched in blood with opens wounds everywhere.

"Let her go." Chortles Trevor.

"Really?" Daniel smiles again. "Why should we? She's betrayed both of us."

Everyone stares at Skye who has tears streaming down her face as a flyboy elbows her in the stomach.

"What are you talking about?" Shane glares at Daniel.

"Oh, so you don't know." He walks over to Skye and pulls her head up by her hair. She winces and more tears start streaming. "She's been working for us the whole time. We've had surveillance on all of you since you morons 'rescued' her from TDI. Do you actually think you could get past all of our security that easily? She's been reporting back to us the whole time."

Everyone stares in disbelief at Skye. "But," Daniel continues, "She seemed to double cross us. With your last mission she never told us anything. Broke in and attacked half our crew in the surveillance room. Screwed up a lot of money's worth of technology." He twists her arm into a painful position and she screams again. "She's betrayed both of us. So the question is; whose side is she with now?" He yanks at her matted black hair again and I see her grimace. "Are you going to come with us like a good little girl, or are you going to stay with _them _so we can kill you ourselves?"

She finally looks up at us with red puffy eyes and bloodstained face and hair and then slowly turns to Daniel and growls, "Go to hell."

Daniel's face is grim and he snaps his fingers. The flyboys restraining her let go and she collapses into a heap on the ground. "Very well." Daniel straightens up and heads toward the exit. "Your choice has been made. You won't be accepted back." The rest of the flyboys follow behind him but one of them kicks her with a ton of force and she screams and whimpers on the ground in a pool of her own blood and they walk away, harshly laughing and snickering as they go.

When their all gone me and Fang help everyone else get untied. Shane walks over to Skye's limp but still conscious body on the ground and kneels down. The whole Tunnel is silent, waiting for the Tunnel Guards' leader's reaction to the situation.

Skye is still crying and curled in a ball and averts her eyes. "I'm sorry Shane." She manages to say in a raspy and choked voice. "They didn't give me a choice."

He nods slightly and stands up and turns his back to everyone. Moments later when he turns back his face is a solid mask of no emotion. "When you get your strength back you're leaving. You're no longer welcome here." Shane walks off into the other tunnels and everything goes incredibly quiet except for Skye's whimpering. We all turn our attention away and immerse ourselves in something, not wanting to really talk to her. It was going to be a long night.

The next morning, which turned out to only be a couple hours away, I woke up way before everyone else. I hadn't slept much anyway though. Not after last nights 'activities'. It all was just a little disturbing. Skye had gone quiet about three hours ago but I heard her rustling as she woke up.

She moaned as she tried to stand up. She tried to crawl her way over to me. "Max?"

I turn to her, "What?"

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I betrayed you guys. I never meant it." She starts sobbing. I just sit there, feeling awkward. This was a different Skye than we had seen. "They made me. You know how they are. If I didn't listen to them they would have killed me."

"They've been telling us the same things." I tell her quietly, not wanting to wake the others up. "They've been trying to order us around for years, Skye. And we've managed to stay alive this whole time. We fought our way through. You just chose the easy way out."

I stand up and walk over to the rest of my flock, leaving her sitting there, with an actual look of hurt on her face and I briefly wonder; what if she really was sorry? What if she really had meant it? Oh well, in the morning Shane was getting rid of her. I guess we'll never know for sure.

**Trevor pov.**

That night I hardly get any sleep at all. And the sleep I do end up getting is ridden with the worst nightmares I've ever had in my life.

When I wake up that morning I would just prefer to lie there on the cold hard floor and never wake up again, wishing it was all just a dream and everything would go back to normal. But when I wake up I see Skye huddled in a corner all alone looking like she had just been run over by a truck. And so I know it wasn't just a dream, even though I wished in all my heart it was.

Not everyone was up yet. Just mostly the older ones. I decide to get up and go over to Skye. She doesn't look up when I do and I sit down and lean against the wall beside her. We just sit there, in silence for a long, long time before anyone says anything.

Finally I break the silence by saying, "Why'd you do it?"

She looks at her feet. "I take it you mean work for Daniel."  
"Yeah." I reply and wait for her answer.

She looks up at me slightly and then turns her head and looks solemnly at the wall ahead of her, as if remember a horrible even from the past. Eventually she says, "They were going to kill her."

"Who?" I ask.

She looks at me, teary-eyed and starts her confessions, "My sister. They kidnapped us both and changed us. She would be five right now. Daniel said if I didn't come spy on the Tunnel Guards he'd kill her."

"What did you mean by she would be five?" I ask her.

"All break-ins that are planned I'm supposed to report to Daniel. When we demolished TDI without warning the other day he got mad and killed her. He sent an agent to give me a picture of her mangled dead body. He had killed her even without communicating with me. I couldn't come up with a lie or anything to tell him at all. He sent a note attached to the picture. He said that I had betrayed everyone. I couldn't fit in with them anymore. I couldn't fit in with anyone anymore. No one would trust me." She wipes away a few of her tears. "I guess he was right." Then her tears start spilling out onto her cheeks uncontrollably now. I hated to see her this way. She had been my best friend for as long as she had been with us.

Oh, I get it now. She hadn't done it for loyalty to Daniel. She had done it out of love. Love for her sister. Love that was now destroyed. She was practically a shell now. Daniel had taken away her sister from her, and now we had taken away everything else.

**What did you think? This was literally my longest chapter yet! Over 2000 words! Yay! Please review! Sorry to leave it on a sad note but . . . I had to stick with my plot. You'll get over it. I update almost every day anyways. And I got this chap up a day early! Yay! Reward me with reviews! -Kristen**


	22. Leaving

**Hi! Hope your liking my story. I swear I'm going to cut down these little notes and make them shorter. And if you're wondering about the length of my story, it will probably end up being REALLY long and then I'll suddenly end it with no warning.**

**So I have a question for you. **

**Should there be a sequel to The Tunnel?**

**A. No! Don't write ANYTHING! Never write another story again!**

**B. Yes! **

**C. I don't care, just leave me alone.**

**D. Don't write a sequel; continue on to a different story.**

**E. Yes write a sequel and write another different story at the same time.**

**F. I don't really care. It's your story, it's your decision.**

**(Hint, hint—the way this story is gonna end you WILL want a sequel . . . just saying)**

**Chapter 21**

**Max pov.**

"Let's go!" Shane yelled at us. Half of the Tunnel Guards and the flock were barely even awake. Apparently he wanted Skye out of here as soon as possible. "We're wasting daylight!"

Skye was still huddled in a corner. She wasn't crying anymore but she looked so insanely depressed that I wanted to yell at Shane to let her stay myself.

Once everyone is fully awake we all start heading for the exit of the Tunnel but Skye stays where she's been for the past several hours; in the corner.

Shane sighs and gets up and walks over to her. "Get up." He hisses at her. "You're leaving. Now."

She raises her eyes and looks up at him with a coolness and hatred I never even knew possible. "You're making a mistake, Shane." She says weakly. She was still beat-up looking from last night. A few wounds had opened up again and she had dried blood still on her clothes. She wasn't the same Skye we had known before.

I couldn't help wondering though, why'd she do it?

Shane just glares at her and drags her up by her elbow. "You're the mistake, Skye." He jerks her away from the wall and shoves her with the rest of us where she walks silently.

None of us had a clue where we were going or where we would be leaving Skye. Was he just going to send her into the woods and tell her to leave? We walked around in the tunnels for a while in complete silence. Obviously we weren't going out of the tunnels.

But then I started to recognize the path. I had been on it before. With Fang.

And then we go through a door and we're out into the morning air. I step through the door and onto the edge of a cliff. Below it was water. This was the place Fang had taken me to. It may have only been last night but it seemed like weeks ago. Oh god. I had a bad feeling about what was going to happen.

Skye looks absolutely terrified for the first time I've seen her. Shane motions his head toward the water. She stares at him briefly and looks down into it. He was going to make her jump.

"We're still in part of the section TDI used to use." Shane explains his face harsh. "None of our powers work here. Angel can't control people or read their minds, Isabelle can't control the weather, Max can't fly fast, none of it will work. And that means you can't change form. You're going to be jumping down there."  
I looked down into the water. There weren't sharp rocks. If she jumped right it wouldn't kill her.

"If you have anything you'd like to say, then say it now." Shane growls and leans against the entrance.

Skye looks at everyone. No one says anything.

**Trevor pov.**

I silently beg Skye to say something. Tell them about her sister. That would change Shane's mind definitely. He would understand then due to a soft spot for Hayley. But she says nothing.

"Okay then." Shane stands up walks over to her. "It's time, Skye,"

She takes a deep breath and slowly turns around to face the water and stands like that for a minute.

I couldn't watch this.

I walked over and turned her around. I grabbed her hand and just stood there, facing Shane. "If she jumps, I jump."

For a moment Shane just looks completely dumbfounded like he has no earthly idea what was happening with his mouth hanging open. But then he recovers and gathers his composures again.

Skye stares at me and whispers, "Why are you doing this?"

"It wasn't you fault." I whisper back and then turn back around to face Shane, whose eyes were flaring.

"Move out of the way, Trevor." He snarls.

"No." I tell him, my feet firmly planted on the ground.

"I said move! I'm your leader, Trevor! You listen to me! She betrayed us." All of his focus is on me now.

"She didn't have a choice, Shane. They were holding her sister hostage; they were going to kill her." I yell back.

He's quiet for a moment but I can tell he's still fuming and isn't going to give up yet.

I take a big breath. It was going to take more than the two of us to get through Shane's thick head.

But then suddenly Max surprises me.

She walks away from her flock and links arms with Skye and gives her a big smile and then looks at Shane expectantly, radiating power and control over the situation.

Almost automatically Fang goes over to stand by her and grabs her hand. Then Iggy comes over and stands, arms crossed, beside me. The younger members of the flock quickly run over and stand in front of us with determination on their faces.

Isabelle goes over to stand by Iggy, then Blaze on her other side, Scar walks over to the other side of Max, and so on, creating a barrier in front of Skye. Everyone except for Heather and Shane was in it.

Max walks out of the group and over to Shane. "She stays or you loose everyone." She tells him with a smugness that tells us she knows she's gonna win.

"Fine." He grumbles through gritted teeth. He walks through the door and slams it shut.

**Max pov.**

Once Shane leaves everyone erupts with joy. Skye walks over to me. "Thanks." She smiles warily. "For everything."

I smile back. "Trevor was right. It wasn't your fault. You were stuck in between."

Later that day we're all sitting in the Tunnel having lunch, except for Shane, who seemingly disappeared for the moment.

That's when Ari shows up. "Hi guys!" He says as he walks into the Tunnel. "Someone really needs to talk to that Shane kid. He's out there punching trees. His knuckles look like someone chopped 'em with an axe."

"Serves him right." Trevor mumbles.

Isabelle rolls her eyes at him and goes over to fill Ari in. He had been away, trying to figure out something. Never did tell us what it was. But wherever Ari goes, the erasers go so about fifty erasers start filing in the Tunnel, taking up any excess space. It's funny. I never thought I'd willingly be in the same room as erasers and not be beating them up.

I look around the room and notice Skye wasn't here.

**Trevor pov.**

Max walks up to me. "You know where Skye went?"

I frown. "What?" I look around the room. She was right. Skye wasn't here. "Oh, I'll go find her."

I run out into the woods after checking the excess tunnels and not finding her. "Skye!" I call out her name. I get no answer. I was starting to panic. "Skye!" I call out again, louder this time.

She steps out from behind a tree. I run over to her. "What are you doing?" I ask.

She averts her eyes and looks to the ground. "I'm leaving, Trevor."  
"What?" I demand.

"I can't stay here." Her eyes are sad. "Trevor, I'm putting everyone in danger. I have to leave."

"Skye . . ." I'm utterly speechless. What was going on?  
"Trevor, I have to go. I'm sorry." With that she vanishes, leaving me confused until I realize she had turned into a hawk sitting in a nearby tree.

She gives me one last look with her now black eyes and then flies off into the sky.

**Review! Sorry most of the chapter was in Trevor's pov, but it kind of went with the story. And I know the whole chapter seemed kind of Hallmark-ish to me . . . well, to ME almost anything that doesn't blow up is sort of Hallmark-ish but you get what I mean. –Kristen **


	23. Fang's Family

**Hi. I'm, sorry it took me a week to get you this but I have been so unbelievably busy and I haven't had time for much of anything lately. The fact that I have about seven projects due this week and I have a ton of homework aside from that I have to keep up with my skating and I haven't had much internet access this week so yeah. And unfortunately don't expect much more this week. I hate January. It's always so busy. And March is even worse. So here's the next chapter. **

**Chapter 22**

**Max pov.**

The next week, I have to say, was incredibly boring. I know, a boring week for us? That just never happens anymore. Normally SOMETHING happens, right? Well this week, NOTHING happens. Shane seems happier, but that probably has to do with the fact that Skye left. Heather's working on not killing herself with a pair of crutches (That's not going so well either). Trevor's been sulking around all the time now. Everything is just so boring I feel like I'm about to be driven insane.

Finally I can't stand it anymore and I stand up and announce, "We're doing something. Now."

At this my entire flock looks relieved. I can't say I blame them.

"What are we gonna do?" Angel asks with a hint of excitement in her voice.

"I'm not sure. But anything's better than this." I gesture around the whole Tunnel where everyone's sitting around.

"They haven't attacked us." Fang says quietly, deep in thought. "They know where we are but they haven't done anything about it."

"Yeah," I say, "we'll worry about that another time. Right now, we're getting out of here."

He nods. At that moment Shane walks into the Tunnel with Ari, discussing something quietly, carrying some of the papers that Fang and I had taken from TDI.

"Guy's," Shane says, "we found something."

Everyone rushes over to him and Shane holds the papers back from everyone and hands them to me.

I glance down at the papers. There's a picture of Fang on it. I look up at Shane but he motions for me to keep reading. I do.

_'Fang' current age: 14. Origin: Corbel, Pennsylvania. Family's current location: 1452 Brooklyn Road, Corbel, Pennsylvania. _

I stare up at Shane. His mouth is twitching upward into a smile. Then I look at Fang, who's giving me a look as if asking what's going on.

I walk over to him and put the papers in front of him. I watch his face as he reads and then looks up at me in amazement. I think we had just found out what to do.

Now we were flying over Ohio to Pennsylvania. I couldn't figure out what my emotions are right now. Part of me was happy for Fang that we know where his parents are, but the other part was upset that we might be losing him. I tried to force the happy part overtop of the sad but it wasn't working too well so I just tried to stop thinking about it.

Nudge was talking nonstop. The Tunnel Guards had decided to stay behind. Beside's, this was kind of just a flock matter and they would just slow us down anyway.

"Nudge!" Iggy groaned. "Just put a cork in it!"

Nudge frowned but thankfully didn't say any more.

The rest of the flight over there was completely silent.

Finally we arrived at a small neighborhood. We landed in a park and started walking, counting addresses. The houses were nice with bricks and big yards and lots of little kids running around everywhere playing hide-and-seek.

I glanced at Fang; he looks sort of nervous. I walk over to him. "You okay?" I ask.

He smiles at me slightly and nods. "Just wondering what they're gonna be like."

I smile back and look at the rest of the flock. Everyone looked kind of anxious.

1449, 1450, 1451 . . . 1452. We had arrived at the house. It was fairly large and made of red bricks. It had a long driveway and a Lexus was parking in an open two-car garage.

There were two small children playing with chalk on the driveway. One a boy around the age of seven, and a girl maybe about ten or eleven. They were staring at us suspiciously, probably wondering why a bunch of people were staring at their house.

Fang suddenly looked stiffened up. I grab his arm and pull him up toward the front door. The other's follow slightly behind us. I let go of his arm and ring the doorbell and hold my breath.

A teenage boy about fifteen with long black hair and blue eyes listening to an ipod opens the door. He looks kind of surprised to see us and then says, "We don't wanna buy anything." And then attempts to close the door but I grab the edge and pull it back open and say, "We're not selling anything. Are you parent's home?'

He frowns and looks at me and then to everyone else and nods and motions for us to come inside.

He leads us into a living room and then leaves and returns with his parents. The guy has dark hair and dark eyes like Fang, and the mom has brown hair and blue eyes. The dad has darker, olive colored skin that looks exactly like Fang's.

They stare at us in confusion and there's an awkward silence. I decide to say something. "About fourteen years ago did your son disappear when he was first born?"

The woman's eyes widen and her husband nods. "How do you know that?" He asks.

I motion to Fang. "I think this is your son."

The woman walks over to Fang and kneels down onto the floor and looks directly into his eyes, studying him.

The man stand's stiffly to the side as the teenager from before whispers something to him. The dad looked exactly like Fang when he stood like that.

The woman stands up with tears in her eyes and turns around for a moment. When she turns back to face us she says in a choked voice, "It's him."

**What do you think Fang's real name should be? First name, I mean. You people can give me ideas. And I just realized that I had my anonymous reivew thing turned off so I turned that off. So people can leave anonymous reviews now. And yeah, I know. Not very much happened in this chapter, sorry about that. But as I've said before; really busy, barely even had time to type this. Okay, I gotta go work on some stupid report of Harry S. Truman. Ugh. –Kristen **


	24. Fang's Past

**I'm SOOOOOO sorry I haven't been able to update lately. But I'm still being pounded beyond belief. I have yet ANOTHER report due Tuesday . . . something called a **_**Courage Report**_** . . . I don't have the heck a tiny clue what I'm supposed to be doing in it . . . and I accidentally forgot to take home the sheet that says what I'm supposed to be doing . . . oops . . . Yeah, I can be a blonde sometimes. But speech meet is done! Yay! And the Harry S. Truman report is done too! And I have to say, if you've never had to study him, consider yourself VERY lucky. He's the most boring person alive—wait . . . he's dead now . . . uh . . . never mind; but he was still boring. Okay, one with the story. WHO IS FANG???? DUN DUN DUN! (I will end up using all of the name suggestions for other characters so if you see the names you suggested for Fang turn up for anyone in this story than that's where the name came from) And I'm sorry for the lateness again. My computer has also been down . . . well, not the whole PC, just the internet. But you get my point. **

**Chapter 23**

**Max pov.**

I don't know what I feel right now. Happy . . . sad . . . I don't know. Possibly even a little scared for the fact that I might be losing Fang. As I watch the woman take in Fang's appearance I KNOW they're related.

"It's him." She says.

The whole flock is silent. No one says anything. I'm not sure anyone could even if they wanted to though. Fang had found his family.

The man walked over to Fang and thrust out his hand for him to shake. "Jonathan." He says stiffly.

Fang's mom smiles at us, "I'm Airla. That's Dominick." She points to the guy who was standing by Jonathan with black hair and blue eyes around fifteen. "He's your brother. He was born a year after you were taken."

The two kids we had seen on the driveway run in to see what was going on.

The boy had brown eyes and brown hair and the girl had brown hair and blue eyes like her mother. "This is William and Emalyne. William goes by Will. He's seven. Emalyne is ten."

Will runs up to his mom and pulls on her skirt and whispers, "Who are they, Mommy?"

Airla looks up at us. "Will, Emalyne; this is your brother."

The two of them look utterly confused. Airla looks flustered. "It's a long story. Why don't we all sit down?"

Everyone finds a seat in their now-crowded living room. "Okay, here goes . . ." Airla takes a deep breath. "I'm . . ." She glances at Fang questionably.

"Fang." He tells her.

She raises and eyebrow but continues. "I'm Fang's mother. Jonathan . . . is not his father."

Everyone's attention goes to Jonathan. He just stares at the ceiling as if it's the most interesting thing in the world.

Airla goes on. "I had Fang with a different man. Fang and Jonathan both still look alike though. I had Fang when I was sixteen. I was and young and foolish. I had Fang with Jonathan's brother. We had both decided to not to decide on a name until the day of his birth. Right after he was born the doctors took him somewhere and then came back moments later saying my son had been taken. Stolen. Disappeared. Fang's father was in Oregon at the time and was flying back here.

"I had talked to him on the phone. This was happening while I was still in labor on my way to the hospital. I knew he wasn't going to make it before his birth but we still decided to wait and name him once he had gotten to the hospital—"

"What was Fang's dad's name?" Angel interrupts.

"Jason." Airla get's a small smile on her lips. "Anyway, after Fang had disappeared I waited in the hospital for Jason but he never showed up. Later I heard that there was a plane on its way from Oregon that had crashed. There were only five survivors and Jason's name wasn't on the list." Her smile fades. "Jason's family was crushed too. And that's how I met Jonathan. Jonathan was Jason's older brother. We got married, had Dominick, and then Will and Emalyne and tried to move on." She shrugged.

I glanced over at Fang; he was sitting quietly on the couch, an expressionless face. As I watched him I also got an uneasy feeling in my stomach.

The whole room was quiet now.

"So . . ." I say, trying to break the silence. "Fang?"

He looks at me, his expression had softened. "Do you wanna stay with them?"

His reaction surprised me. He stood up and walked out the door and slammed it shut. A few moments passed where no one said anything. "I'll go get him." I got up and walked outside.

I almost tripped over him. He was sitting on the steps. I sat down by him. He didn't say anything.

"Fang?" He still stared straight forward. "Fang?" I tried again. He turned to look at me.

"I'm thinking." He said and then turned back to look forward again.

"About what?" I ask.

"Max, go back inside. Let me think." He grumbled.

"Not without you." I said firmly.

He turned and glared at me. I sighed and stood up and went back inside. Everyone ran up to me.

"He's thinking." I explain with a shrug.

We all kinda wait around and walk throughout the Haze's house. They seemed like a normal enough family from what I've seen.

When we hear the door open Fang trudges in. Everyone stops what they're doing and stares at him. He sits down and props his feet up on the coffee table.

God, he knew how do drive us crazy. "Fang? Are you staying or coming back with us?"

He looks up and me and says . . .

**CLIFF HANGER!!!! MWA HA HA!!! What do YOU think Fang should do??? Should he stay with his family or stay with the flock?? Your choice. And if I don't get any suggestions then I'LL pick . . . which is bad, very bad. I have a tendency to torture people . . . so you wouldn't probably like my choices. -Kristen**


	25. Big Dogs

**I'm sooooooooooo sorry!!!! Seriously, for some reason whenever I tried to open word document it shut my entire computer off! I don't know why, but I had this chapter mostly written and it died on me and I lost almost everything. So that's why I haven't been able to update so don't yell at me! Also I've had way too much homework for my own good. For anyone's own good. The only reason I've even had time to retype this is cause I stayed home sick and now I'm gonna be even more behind than I was so be happy. I'm gonna shut up now and get to the story. **

**Chapter 24**

**Max pov.**

"How about we all stay here for a while?" He looks at me, for approval. "If that's okay with you." He adds, turning to look at Airla

She nods. "We'd be delighted to have you guys here."

I think about that for a moment. We'd have a chance to have a bed to sleep in, real food. But then what about the Tunnel Guards? Well, I guess they'd be fine without us for a while anyways. I nod in reply. "Only for a while." I knew this was probably Fang's way of stalling from making the decision but I'm letting it slide.

And so now here we are, in an actual house, in an actual living room. It felt strange. Instantly I think of Dr. Martinez and Ella. We really should go back and visit them, but some part of me wants to hold off on that trip. I don't know why, but for some reason I just do. We'll end up going back eventually though; I know I couldn't stand to not go back ever. It would definitely be nice to feel like I have a family again. But what about Jeb?

What about me? He says suddenly.

I jump when I hear his voice. Why does he always come at the moments I lease expect most? Why couldn't he come when I actually want him to come (well, that wouldn't work because I NEVER want him to come) and not come when I didn't want him to come?

Maximum, when will you learn to trust me? I hear him sigh.

_Umm,_ I think, _how about never? _

You're only hurting yourself.

"And how would I be doing that?" I snarl.

Everyone stares at me and that's when I realize I'd spoken out loud. Dominick raises an eyebrow, Airla stares worriedly at me.

"Uh," I try to come up with an excuse, "I was just umm . . ."

"Mommy!" Emalyne comes running into the room. "Come look outside! There's a bunch of big dogs running around on two feet! They're huge! Come see, come see!"

Fang and I exchange glances. "Huge dogs . . .?"

Emalyne nods excitedly as if this is the best thing that's ever happened to her. "Huge! Almost eight feet tall!"

"Aww man!" Iggy sighs and puts his head in his hands.

"And there's a bunch of men in black out there too! They're holding guns!" William runs in too.

"Everyone go to the basement now!" I order the family. They stay put, completely clueless and confuse. I groan. "Look, they will kill you! We'll explain everything later. Just everyone go in the basement now before it's too late!"

They all follow my orders to my great relief and run down in the basement and lock the doors.

Almost as soon as the door is closed and we hear the click of the lock almost half the wall bursts open and a bunch of erasers coming piling in. But these weren't the erasers who were on our side. I could tell by their evil, vicious and hungry smiles. These erasers were out for blood; these were still loyal to Itex.

**Would anyone like to beta a new story I'm coming up with? I am still really sorry about the wait. And about the length. I know it's short. Please forgive me. Blame my computer. I do. Review!!!! -Kristen**


	26. The 5th Book

**Hey, sorry, no chapter today. Umm, really busy. But I have big news people. It's about the 5th Maximum Ride book.**

**Go to my profile. And click on the link about the 5th book. There will DEFINITELY be one, I garantee it people. Just go to this link. GO TO MY PROFILE TO CHECK IT OUT IF YA WANNA KNOW!**

**And sorry, I'll try and get my next chapter up as soon as I can, but my computer's acting weird and its not letting me review anything and whenever I tried to get on Word Document it would shut down my entire computer system. On the happier note, by the end of next week I should probably have a laptop if my dad was telling the truth so I might actually have something that works cause my mom is getting really mad that I keep taking her laptop up to my room. Sorry for the delay. **

**Kristen**


	27. Back on a Plane

**Okay, people, I am REALLY sorry about the lack of updates going on here and um I can't remember if I was able to reply to any reviews or not, but for a while I wasn't able to reply or review. And my next excuse for not being able to update is the Internet is completely down on my PC (I finally got my laptop!), and then on my laptop, I can't get the office doc. to download so I'm having some serious problems and whenever I wanna get on the Internet on my MacBook I have to type in this 20 digit code. I'm working on getting this fixed. Sorry again!! I'm gonna try and make this one extra long! I have to say it again…SORRY!!**

**Chapter…wait, what chapter are we on? Oh yeah, 26.**

**Max pov. **

One of the erasers step up toward me. "Maximum, it's been a while."

"Well, I was enjoying every moment of that while." I glare at him. Did we know this eraser or something?

The eraser chuckles. "I remember when you were just a little girl. You've always been a vicious one…You almost bit my thumb off one time. I still have a scar from it." He holds up a finger with a small patch where there's no hair on it and a bite mark one it.

I laugh. "Even my bite is powerful! Did you shave the hair off just to show me that?"

"Actually," the eraser says quietly, "it fell off after that and never grew back."

"Umm . . . okay then . . . so, cut to the chase and tell me why you guys are here."

"What?" He grins. "Did you actually think we'd leave you guys alone forever?"

"No, but we sure did hope . . ." Fang mutters under his breath.

"Silence!" An eraser behind him slaps him in the back of the head making him stumble forward. "We're talking to the girl, not you."

"You're going to be talking to the floor if you touch him one more time." I snarl.

One of the erasers whistles. "Ouch. You gotta have your girlfriend to back you up! Real manlike!" A bunch of the erasers start laughing.

Fang's face remains, stunningly, emotionless.

While the erasers are still cackling Fang kicks the one who made the remark in the side of the gut and the eraser hits the floor and his lip busts open. I can't help but grin. Good 'ol Fang.

The erasers stop laughing and the one on the floor gets up and wipes blood off of his busted lip, red hot anger taking over his eyes.

"You wanna play games huh?" He growls at Fang and walks straight past me and stands in front of Fang, towering over him by at least three feet.

He throws a punch at Fang but Fang ducks and then connects his fist with the erasers jaw. The eraser howls in fury and sends his foot out to kick Fang and sends him flying backward into the staircase, denting half the steps in.

Fang quickly springs up to fight back and then I realize something. None of the other erasers are doing anything. They're all just standing there watching the fight.

Angel! I call out in my mind.

_Yeah? _she says back.

On the count of three tell the rest of the flock to attack all the other erasers. I tell her.

_Okay . . . we're all ready. You can start counting. _She replies.

One . . . two . . . three . . .

Gazzy suddenly throws a grenade at a cluster of erasers by the door and they scream and collapse to the ground, paralyzed and unconscious. We run and attack the remaining erasers.

"Hit the floor!" Iggy calls out.

All six of us dive simultaneously to the ground and cover our ears and close our eyes and there's a big _BOOM_! and then its all silent. I get up cautiously to see all of the erasers silenced on the floor. I motion for the others to get up and crack down the door to the basement. "Come on! We gotta go! Now!" I call out to Fang's family.

They all come running up the stairs.

"What was that?" Will looks up at me with big eyes.

"Erasers." I explain. "Look, we'll tell you guys more about them later but not right now. We have to get out of here. Airla, Jonathan, Go upstairs and pack everyone a backpack each of clothes and stuff. Dominick, pack a bag filled with food. Nothing that needs refrigeration or has a close expiration date. Go for canned food. Will and Emalyne, you guys help Dominick."

I run outside what's left of the doorway and see a bunch of the neighbors huddled outside, trying to figure out what was going on. The fire alarm in the house starts going off. "Crap." I mumble. I hear fire trucks and police cars in the distance.

"Be quick!" I yell at them. "Fang, Iggy, Nudge, go help Airla and Jonathan pack!" They nod and run up the stairs.

They must have always known where Fang's family lives and have had it guarded all along. And if they knew where Fang's family was, they had to know where the rest of the flock's family members where too.

About ten minutes later, with the help of Angel's mind reading powers to stall the police and fire trucks, we're all assembled in the backyard. Everyone's quiet. Airla and Jonathan are trying to shush Emalyne and Will and get them to stop crying. Dominick started texting with his phone until I ripped out of his hands and snapped it in half and threw it in a puddle. He gives me an incredulous look and I explain, "They could have a tracker in it."

Angel and Nudge are talking quietly and Gazzy and Iggy are screwing around with a bomb, and I, surprisingly, am letting it slide.

Meanwhile, me and Fang are deciding on where we should go. "Well, they obviously can't fly with us!" He says.

"I know. But we can't take their car. For one, its too small, and they probably have it wired and tracked." I sigh.

He thinks for a moment. "We could steal someone else's."

I look around the side of the house and see a big Suburban in the next door neighbors driveway. It'd be a big squeeze, but it'd have to work.

We tell everyone the plan and at first Airla and Jonathan are reluctant to steal their neighbors car AND shove eleven people in one car.

Then I point out the fact that its either that, or we all die.

That shuts 'em up.

Jonathan explains that those neighbors are out of town and took their smaller car and that they're good friends with them. He explained that the family was very paranoid and luckily left their spare set of keys with them so they couldn't get stolen.

He runs in and gets the extra keys and we all pack into the eight-seater car. Jonathan driving, Airla in the passengers seat with Will in her lap. Dominick, me, and Fang take the middle row seats, with me crammed in between them; Angel on my lap, and Emalyne on Dominick's.

In the back seats are Iggy, Nudge, and Gazzy.

"Where to?" Jonathan asks.

"Uh . . ." Me and Fang had failed to figure that part out.

"Wisconsin." Fang fills in.

"Why Wisconsin?" I ask him quietly.

"One of the erasers had a bag with him and all the papers were burnt up when Gazzy and Iggy blew up the place but one. It had a list of Itex plants in the United States. The closest one is in Wisconsin." He replies.

"Why the heck would we want to go TO THEM?" Dominick says giving us a look that says, _How retarded can you get?_

"Fang, we have to take our family somewhere! We can't take them to Itex too!" I chortle back.

There was no way I was leading his family to their death. He nods in understanding. And we're silent for a moment.

"We should take them to your mom's." He says after a while.

"That's perfect! Head for Arizona." I tell Jonathan.

Jonathan's head snaps back and looks at us giving us the same look Dominick just did. "You want us to drive all the way from Pennsylvania to Arizona? You have got to be kidding me!"

"Isn't there some other way to get there?" Airla asks. "Couldn't we fly on a plane instead?"

"No, out of the question. We are NOT getting on a plane!" I yell back.

"Max," Fang says and I turn to look at him, "THEY could take a plane, and one of us could go with them. The rest of us could fly by ourselves and follow the plane. The people not on the plane could take the laptop and if anythings happening on the plane then the one of us in there can e-mail you guys and try and take out as many of 'em as they could."

"I could go." Angel says. "Instead of laptops I could use telepathy."

"Angel there is no way I would let you go up there without one of us." I imply.

"Then one of you guys could go with me." She says.

I think for a moment. That did seem sort of like a good idea. And with Angel up there if any erasers or white coats were up there then she could use her mind control on them. I sigh.

"Fine, alright. Angel, I'll go with you up there. Fang, you think you can handle the guys and Nudge for a while?"

"Can I go with you too, Max?" Nudge pleads.

"Yeah--wait . . ." I frown. If Nudge went with me and Angel then it'd be exactly like when the flock divided last time when Fang left. What if--

Fang puts a hand on my shoulder. "Let her go. "We'll be there when you guys land, I promise." Then he adds in a low voice so only I could hear. "I'm not gonna leave you again like that."

I nod. "Okay, Nudge, you can come. To the airport then, Jonathan."

**Okay, I gotta apologize ONE MORE TIME. SORRY! I know that wait was so ridiculously long! Umm, anyways, please review even though I know I don't deserve it!  
-Kristen **


	28. I Thought You Were Dead

**Hey everyone! I have a couple announcements to make!**

**1-I think starting the 14th of July we will be on vacation in the Bahamas. So I don't think I will be able to find a place with Internet access but the good news is I'm allowed to take my laptop so I can probably get a chapter or two done! We'll get back a week later. **

**2-I would like to thank all of you for being such amazing reviewers and supporting me throughout this!**

**3-Saddly, I am coming to an end of the story! I plan on having only two or three more chapters left of this story! (Gasp!)**

**4-That last chapter was actually chapter 25, not 26, sorry!**

**5-The ending will be kind of, okay, majorly, cliff hanger-ish! **

**6-(IMPORTANT! MUST READ THIS!) If I can get TEN people, ten DIFFERENT people, in reviews, to tell me they want a sequel then I will write one. But only if you people want one will I write one. So all you have to do to get me to write a sequel is to click on the little review button and tell me I should write a sequel. Easy enough, right?**

**Okay, that's all the announcements I had! On with the story!**

**Chapter 26**

**Max pov. **

"I'm gonna go look around. Make sure there's no one suspicious around here." I stand up and Angel stands up and walks over to me.

"Max, we should call Shane's house. Tell them what's going on. They'll wanna know." She tells me.

Oh yeah, the Tunnel Guards! I had completely forgotten about them . . . "Right, umm, okay, I'll use one of the plane's phones. Meanwhile, can you ask Fang how its lookin' outside. Tell him to make sure there's no one on our trail." She nods and I ask one of the flight attendants where the phone was.

She points off into a direction and I walk over to the phone and call Shane's house.

"Hello?" A perky little voice says.

"Hi, is Shane there?" I ask.

"Just a moment." A few minutes later Shane's voice comes onto the other end of the phone. "Yeah?"

"Shane, its Max--"

Max? Where are you guys?"

"Well, we're on a plane." I say.

"I thought you hated planes . . .?" He says suspiciously.

"Well, I do, but . . . you see, we found Fang's parents, the erasers busted into their house, Iggy and Gazzy took 'em out with some explosives, and so now half the flock is flying and half is on the plane with Fang's parents flying down to Arizona. We're gonna have them stay with my parents so we won't be back for a while."

Once I explain the entire situation I hang up the phone and turn to walk away but run into a man carrying a styrofoam cup of coffee. He drops the cup and a bunch of papers in surprise. He has black hair and light brown eyes with sharp features and probably in his late forties. "Sorry," I apologize.

"No," he sighs, "it was my fault. I should have been watching where I was going." He bends down to pick up some of the stuff.

I bend down to help him and pick up a stack of papers. A word on the paper catches my eye: Fang. I read it. It says, "Unnamed, goes by Fang, fourteen years old." The rest was just more information about him. I keep reading and find more info on the rest of us and Itex as well.

"You're with Itex." I remark.

The man looks up and snatches the papers out of my hand.

"How would you even know what Itex is?" He says snidely.

"Oh my, you work with Itex and you don't even know who I am. That's a new one." I raise my eyebrows.

"Okay," he says, lowering his voice so its barely audible, "first of all, I do NOT work with Itex! I'm completely against them--" I cut him off.

"In that case, I may not kill you after all."

"Let me finish." He glares at me. "Who are you anyways?"

"Maximum Ride, at your service." I roll my eyes and wait for him to start gawking.

His eyes change from hard to soft. "Maximum Ride? Max? Are you serious . . .?"

"No, I'm kidding, my name's Anne Frank." I say sarcastically. "And who might you be? Abraham Lincoln?"

"The papers were right." He mumbles.

"I take it you've also been informed on my stubbornness. Now who are you?" I give him a menacing look.

He returns the look. "I'm--"

"Max! Max!" Angel comes running over to me before he can finish the sentence.

"Fang wanted me to tell you . . . wait, who are you?" She stops mid-sentence.

"He was just about to tell me that before you--"

"Fang?" The man cuts in, eyes incredulously wide.

"Yes, jeez, what is this? Cut everyone off before they can finish saying anything day?" I shake my head. "Hang on will you, mystery man, I'll be right back." I pull Angel off to the side. "What is it?"

"Fang told me to tell you that its all clear. There's no one tailing us. He says there aren't any planes or choppers or erasers or flyboys anywhere near here. And that they're over to the right of the plane but up a little bit so they're out of view. Max, who is that guy and why does he know who we are?" She asks nervously.

"Kids, what's going on?" Airla walks over.

"Airla!" The man exclaims miraculously.

"Oh my God." Airla stands, frozen in shock, staring at him.

"What the heck is going on here? Who is he and why do you know him?" I ask.

Dominick, Will, Jonathan, and Emalyne all come over to see what's going on. Passengers turn in their seats and crane their necks to see what all the chaos was about.

Airla and the man are staring at each other intently.

"I thought you were dead." She whispers, almost frightened.

The man just stands there, stunned. "I'm sorry."

"I'm sorry?" Airla yells. "I'm sorry doesn't come near enough to cut it! Where the heck have you been?"

"Whoa, whoa, whoa. lets back up a little bit." I announce. "Who are you?!" I practically scream at the man.

"My name's Jason." He says quietly.

"Jason?" I ask, my eyes widening. "You mean the Jason you told us about?" I turn to Airla.

She nods.

"You're Fang's father?" I ask skeptically.

"Yeah, I guess so."

Jonathan stomps over and slaps his brother on the face. "Idiot!"

Jason shrugs it off. "I deserved that."

Airla walks up to him. "How could you not come back to me after we had our son?" She slaps him even harder. Ouch!

"And you deserved that even more . . ." I say quietly.

He glares at me and suddenly looks tired. "Where's my son?"

I point outside and lower my voice. "Flying beside the plane."

"Oh." He nods. "I want to meet him when we get out of this plane."

I get up in his face and say threateningly. "We'll see."

**GO READ ANNOUNCEMENT NUMBER 6 NOW!! If you haven't read it then read it. Sorry, but I know people tend to skip everything at the top and so I just wanted you people who did skip it to go back up and READ IT! Please review! -Kristen**


	29. Never Mind

**Hello folks! Guess what! I only had 3 people review and tell me I wanted a sequel! So that means 7 more people need to tell me they want a sequel or, sadly, NO SEQUEL! (GASP). So if you want one, I'd get a move on with it! Oh, and I just got back from the Bahamas! Well, here's one of the last chapters! (Double gasp)**

**Chapter 27**

**Max pov.**

I waited anxiously in my seat for the plane to land. About thirty more minutes. I nudge Angel.

"Yeah, Max?" She asks drearily.

"Can you check on Fang and the guys?" I ask her.

She opens her eyes fully. "Max, umm, I checked on them at least five times in the past twenty minutes…"

"I know, but did you tell Fang or any of them about jason?" I ask.

"No, was I supposed to?" She raises an eyebrow.

"Nope." I shake my head.

She closes her eyes and leans back on her pillow again.

I bite my lip nervously. "Can we just check on them one more time?"

"Getting possessive are we?" Nudge snickers.

"No, just worried." I defend.

"Max. Just calm down. Nothing's gonna happen to them." Angel says, sounding half-asleep. "And if something did I'd know about it."

"Right…" I try to say more calmly while Nudge starts laughing her head off.

Eventually I think I fall asleep because the next thing I know people are all standing up in the isles walking toward the exit and Nudge is poking me, trying to get me to wake up. "C'mon Max, you can finally see if your darling Fang is okay!"

I shove her into the seat and glare at her. Dominick laughs. "So I take it there's something going on between you two?"

"Nothing is going on!" I snap.

Angel smiles and leans in a whispers into Dominick's ear, "Don't listen to her; she's in denial."

I let the comment slide. I was excited to get off the plane. They still terrify me, though I think I'm getting better.

I jump out of my seat and grab my backpack and now its just the wait of getting through the line of passengers. Once we're finally out of the plane I look around, trying to find the guys, but I didn't see them anywhere, which worried me.

"I know where they are." Angel put her hand on my arm with a slight grin.

Everyone follows Angel outside the airport and slightly to the side of the building, where I see them standing under a tree.

The corners of Fang's lips twitch upward in his barely-there-smile until he sees Jason trailing behind us. Then he frowns.

He approaches us. "Who's he?"

"Well, its great to see you too!" I say sarcastically. "Umm, Fang . . . its a long story."

His dark eyes narrow as he tries to figure out what I'm saying. "Yeah?"

I motion for the rest of the flock to come over to us and for Fang's family to stay put.

"Max . . . who is that?" He asks discerningly.

"Umm, that's your father." I stop to let the words sink in.

His jaw drops slightly. "What?"

"That's Jason. He's your dad." I explain carefully.

He peers over at Jason, who is looking at Fang like he was a little kid opening the first present on Christmas.

"Are you sure?" He asks.

I nod. "I think so. You guys look a lot alike."

He stands still and quiet for a moment.

"Do you want to talk to him?" I ask softly.

"He's supposed to be dead." He says, barely audible. "What happened?"

"We don't know yet." I tell him.

His face shows some small emotion. Pain, anger, happiness, and then confusion.

"You don't have to talk to him if you don't want to." I try to say comfortingly. To tell you the truth, I didn't really know what to say at all.

"I want to talk to him." He says bluntly. "Bring him over."

I nod at Jason and he comes running over and stands in front of Fang. I back away a little bit. They stare at each other in the eyes.

There's a moment of awkward silence as all of us except the two of them don't know what to do except stare at them.

"You're dead." Fang says.

"I didn't die." Jason shakes his head.

"Then what happened?" Fang asks angrily.

"Itex. They told the papers they found my body and I was dead. I was supposed to be a dead man." Jason looks down at his feet.

"What?" Fang asks, confused. We were all confused.

"Wait." I step in. I couldn't help it. I had to. "So you ARE with Itex?"

Jason sighs. "No, I--" At that moment some strange beeping noise starts and Jason's eyes get wide.

"A tracker." He hisses frustratedly.

"Huh?" Iggy says.

Jason sits down in the grass and dumps out his briefcase and starts rummaging through all his pages. "Crap!"

"What's going on?" I ask.

He pulls out a little black thing that looks like a bug. "They put a tracker on me! We HAVE to get out of here! Oh jeez, no, its time!"

Me and Fang look at each other. Time for what? Part of me just didn't want to know.

"Guys!" A female voice from behind us says.

I whip around. "Skye?" I ask incredulously.

Her raven black hair was a mess. She had scars and scratches all over her. Her clothes were a disaster. SHE was a disaster.

"You have to leave now?" Angel looks up at her frail body.

"They're about to attack!" Her eyes go wide. "We're gonna die!"

"Max!" Another voice. Wait, was that . . . Shane?

We turn to the entrance of the airport to see the Tunnel Guards, minus Heather, running toward us.

"What are you doing here?" I ask.

"We caught a ride on a plane as fast as we could once Skye had warned us." Shane says grimly.

"What's happening?" I ask. Would someone just explain alreday?

"Itex and TDI." Trevor explains. "They're about to go all out with the Eliminators. We need to stop them!"

Someone pokes me on the back and I turn around and Jeb and Dr. Martinez and Ella are standing right there.

"Sheesh, now our full house is complete!" I joke.

"Max, this is no time for joking." Jeb says distractedly looking around in panic. "If we don't stop this they'll take us all down! Do you realize how dangerous these things are?"

I nod.

"Good, now we need to come up with a plan--"

"I thought they were going to destroy New york though?" I point out.

"That's what I thought too. But I guess they knew we knew and changed plans." Says Dr. Martinez.

And with that, we start to plan.

**Fang Pov. **

Our plan was simple. Break into Itex and TDI's Arizona plant (seems like they had them everywhere) and figure out how to shut down the Eliminators. According to Jeb, there was a self-destruct button on them. Or should I say, it. That's right. They had created an even more advanced model. A model so advanced they only needed one t bring down an entire city.

Jeb didn't know were they were being kept so we broke up into groups.

Me, Angel, and Max. Beth and Shane. The eleven year old Jason of the Tunnel Guards wanted to be with my dad, Jason, so Jason and Jason. Iggy, Laurie and Isabelle. Trevor and Skye. Scar, Blaze, and Nudge. Jeb worked solo. Dunno why but he insisted to do it that way. And he also insisted that Dr. Martinez and Ella go back to their house and not leave except for in dire situations. And of course the rest of my family go along with them to their house.

"Here we go again, guys." Max says. Before we head out Max wanted to have a small meeting between just the flock. We were huddled underneath a large oak tree. It was raining. She sighs.

I watch her. She looked sad. Though I really couldn't blame her. Jeb had made it perfectly clear that there was a very large chance that some of us would . . . not make it through this. As he put it. He said they weren't taking prisoners. It was a get-in-the-way-and-die situation there. That this was a completely different situation than we were used to. And we believed him.

It was quiet throughout our group but then Max speaks up again.

"We've been through a lot together." She says. We nod our heads in agreement. "And they've tried to get to us tons of times in tons of ways. And I don't know about you guys but . . ." She pauses. "I'm not ready to let them get to us this time either."

I smile at her. She smiles back. "Anyways, I know we're going to be working in groups this time. None of us together really. So this is a little different for all of us, but I want you to know I'm not leaving ANYONE of you behind."

This was depressing. I had to do something. "No one is getting left behind. Dead or alive." I try to add helpfully.

Suddenly Nudge bursts into tears. "Stop this!" She yells at us. "You're making it sound like we're gonna die! You 'say' that we're not letting them get to us, but you're 'talking' like you know they will! What happened to your spirit?" She looks at all of us. "We WON'T let them get to us. No matter what! We've beat them billions of times before." She's still sobbing. "Believe it!"

With that she runs off underneath a different tree. Leaving me and Max looking at each other awkwardly.

"I'll go talk to her." Max volunteers. She stands up to go to her and I watch her leave.

**Max Pov. **

"Nudge?" I approach her carefully.

She nods.

I sit down next to her. "Look, I wasn't trying to sound like that. It was just . . . I was thinking about the 'what ifs'. You know."

"Yeah, I know. You just wanted to get some stuff out of there just in case." She nods again. "Can you get Fang over here too?" She asks.

"Uh, okay."

Once Fang is with us Nudge smiles. "Alright. So then. You two have something to talk about and you both know what I mean so go ahead and work that out. I'll be with the rest of the flock. Don't come back till you accomplish something." She trots away, leaving us standing there dumbfounded.

"Uh . . ." I say, unable to think of what to say.

"I think that girls read one too many romance novels." Fang chuckles nervously.

"Guys!" Jeb yells at us. "We need to leave now!"

"I guess we're off the hook from whatever she wanted us to do." I say and start to walk toward everyone.

Fang grabs my arm. "Wait." I turn around to look at him and he stares directly into my eyes. "I--"

"Get over here NOW!" Jeb yells furiously at us. Fang lets go of my arm.

"Never mind." He mumbles.

"Ready to go?" Jeb asks.

I nod my head solemnly.

"Let's get moving then before its too late." Shane says cheerfully, trying to lighten the mood. It wasn't working.

**7 more people need to tell me they want a sequel! Or else, ya don't get one. Sorry, but that's just the way it works here. :( Wow, that was a long entry! Hope you enjoy! And please review! I can't believe this is almost over…-Kristen**


	30. The Ridiculously Belated Finale

**Ha Ha . . . hi guys . . . I'm betting you hate me . . . Do I dare look at the last chapter to see the date I posted it? I feel that I must---Holy Lord its been over a year . . . Umm, anyways . . . I sincerely apologize for the ridiculous lateness of the chapter. I know it is basically inexcusable, but I am hoping that you will forgive me. Alas, life has been crazy. And sadly, I must say that I am most like NOT going to be writing a sequel, not because you guys aren't amazing enough, but because my life is way too hectic. Sorry. I wish I had the time, but I don't anymore. **

**Perhaps I might start writing FanFics again someday, but for now, I think its highly doubtable. I may read a couple stories on here every once and a while, and comment and encourage, but probably not a whole lot. **

**I thank you guys all so very much with how encouraging you all were with your reviews and whatnot, and I have actually made quite a few friends along with it! **

**Mandatory Disclaimer––Max, Jeb, the Flock, and et cetera all belong to James Patterson. **

**Not So Mandatory Yet Needed Claimer––I do, in fact, own the Tunnel Guards, and TDI. **

**Also, if I do make any mistakes with names and ages, it is because I have not even slightly thought about this story in like a year, so that would be why. **

**Its been a great ride, guys! Here's the final chapter. **

**Chapter 28**

**Max Pov. **

Fang, Angel, and I are working our way to the main building, to see if there was a button that could shut down the Eliminators all at once. It was a risky idea, but if there actually was a button, it would probably be worth it. There was some sort of invisible forcefield around the whole facility, but Jeb and Jason did something so that we could penetrate through it. We were walking in the woods just inside the forcefield.

I take a deep breath. I knew this wasn't going to be easy when we were making our plan, but its so much worse now that its actually happening.

"Okay, so it looks like the windows are barred up. I'm not exactly sure how we should get inside. The front door seems a little too risky. Maybe there's a back or side door somewhere?" I look over at Fang.

He doesn't say anything, but stares at the ground for a moment.

"Fang? Do you have any ideas?" I press. Now is not the time to clam up, Fang . . .

He still doesn't say anything. He looks at me briefly, opens his mouth, looks at Angel, who was pretending not to listen, and looks back down at the floor.

Now I am starting to get irritated. "Fang. This is kind of important, in case you haven't noticed. We need _teamwork_ to be able to beat this."

He mumbles something quietly and looks up at me.

I crane my neck in question. "What?"

He sighs. "Nothing. Uh, from the looks of it, I don't think there's a back or side entrance. I think our best chance is probably to just bust through the door and take down anyone in the way." These words were spoken with some sort of harsh compassion.

"Is everything okay?" I ask worriedly.

"Just fine. We're getting through this. Let's move." He pushes his way past Angel and me, bumping me aside a bit.

I look after him with a look of utter bafflement and hurt. What was going on with him? I look over at Angel, who is biting her lip, obviously trying not to say something.

"What? What are you not telling me?" I stare down at her with a sharp eye.

"Come! On!" Fang hisses back at us.

"Alright, alright. Lord." I huff and Angel and I trudge forward to catch up with our irate friend.

"So, Angel, I know they will probably have some sort of block or something, but if you can, hurl anyone coming at us at the wall." Fang instructs.

"Okay." Angel nods.

Wait a minute . . . I am the leader, here! Why is Fang giving the orders?

"Alright. So I am guessing that the control room will be on the top floor. There's a satellite up on the roof, so perhaps if we can get up there and break that down––"

"There's no way it'll be that simple. We have to get inside." Fang shakes his head in disagreement.

"But there was a forcefield around the facility! They may have thought that to be enough protection. It could work." I argue back.

"Yeah, but that alone could get one of us killed, Max. Think about it." He is glaring at me now.

"Oh, and just running through the front door WONT?" I cross my arms.

Out of the corner of my eye I can see Angel's eyes widen and a look of remorse washes over her face.

**Iggy Pov. **

"Alright." Isabelle is saying, "Iggy, there's two Eliminators around, oh, say, two o'clock––"

"Its twelve o'clock. Don't listen to her." Gazzy whispers in my ear, which makes me smile.

"Okay, fine, Gazzy. Twelve o'clock. And three more at . . . five?" I can practically envision Isabelle grinning sheepishly.

"Seven." Gazzy corrects.

"Seven. And . . . you know what . . . Just let Gazzy tell you." She laughs.

Gazzy finishes telling me the rest of the places where people and Eliminators are located.

"Right. So then we'll fly over and drop bombs when you give the word and they aren't looking, Laurie. This will give a distraction so Max, Fang, and Angel and get inside." I go over the plan in my head.

Laurie sighs. "Okay. I think one of the Eliminators broke down. A bunch of the guards are going down to look at them. Now is probably our best chance."

"Great. Let's go Gazzy." I nod, and we take off.

"Alright, on three. One . . . two . . ." We drop the handmade bombs in unison on top of four Eliminators. Bad idea.

The explosion was huge, and we are sent pummeling toward the ground in a heap of smoke. I can't see anything (obviously), and since I am unfamiliar with my surroundings, I have no idea where I am falling. All I know, is that I'm going down. And hard.

After what seems like minutes, I plummet onto the ground, and bounce off a tree painfully before hitting the ground. I can't feel anything. Where was Gazzy? Had he survived the explosion? How are Isabelle and Laurie and everyone else going to find me?

I try to stand up but immediately collapse back to the hard, cold ground.

**Max Pov. **

"Fang, I am the leader of this flock! I think the satellite is a fair shot!" At that moment, a loud explosion bursts off throughout the distance. It was so huge that the three of us are knocked to the ground. "Oh please tell me they didn't use bombs!" I groan.

"Max, of course they used bombs." Fang stands up and dusts himself off before adding snidely. "Its Iggy and Gazzy."

At this point, I am practically seeing red. What was his problem? I take a deep breath and try to calm down. If there is some chance that I die, I don't want to die furious at Fang. "Okay. We'll do it your way."

Fang, a little shocked that I had given in, nods. "Kay. Let's go. We should have left five minutes ago when the explosion went off."

We start sprinting to the door and Fang rips it open. There were two men standing guard, whom we easily kick to the ground. Immediately, we run up the stairs. They were way too narrow to fly up. But, lucky for us, there were like fifteen flights of stairs.

The building starts to shake. The next floor we get to, I stop and look out the window for a minute. The satellite had fallen to the ground in pieces from the explosion. I look further ahead; the Eliminators are still running. Crap. Did that mean that there was no way to get the signal out now?

The building shakes some more, and I hear some screaming. I think this must have been what it felt like being in the World Trade Center when it went down eight years ago **(A/N: Let us take a brief moment and have a second or two of silence for the lives lost on this day eight years ago on 9/11 . . .-says a quick prayer-)**, knowing there was a strong likeliness that we were going to die, and yet we still are running up the stairs to the top floor.

Fang pulls on my shirt aggressively, but when he sees the look on my face, his softens a bit.

We venture forward and finally reach the top floor. There is a single door when we get there. Its made of metal, and bolted shut about a million times.

Fang runs and tries to knock it down, but he falls backward onto his spine. I look at Angel. Her face was scrunched up in concentration. I frown. What was she doing?

Slowly, I notice the bolts were unscrewing themselves. Fang hops up to run at it again, but I hold my arm out and stop him.

The last bolt falls out and I turn the handle; to my shock, it opens. I look at Angel incredulously. She's smiling proudly.

It doesn't take much to take care of the security, leaving one man hostage to show us how to deactivate all the Eliminators.

"Alright. How do we deactivate the Eliminators?" Fang has his foot on the mans chest. The man is sweating and his face is dripping with blood.

"I--I don't know!" He stammers.

Fang puts a little more pressure on his chest. He wails in agony. A rib was probably about to crack. "Alright. Its a green button. Over on the third panel to your left."

"Angel, make him stay down." I order, and Fang lifts his foot of his chest. The man just lies there, completely paralyzed.

I go to press the button but the man hisses out, "This whole place will blow up if you--" he coughs and gasps for breath, "press that button."

I get it now. Self-destruction buttons. It was the only way. I look to Angel once more. "Okay, Angel, see if you can send a message through everyone's head. Tell them to get as far away as possible."

A piece of shrapnel flies through a nearby window, landing beside Fang.

I continue with my orders. "Both of you, leave now. I'll press the button in a minute or so, giving you time to get out. The multiple explosions of the Eliminators should probably remain within the forcefield. As soon as I press it, I'll fly out as fast as I can through that broken window." I point to the one the shrapnel had just torn through.

"What happened to "we're not leaving anyone behind."?" Fang steps up to me.

"Better one than all. I'll be fine, Fang. I can fly faster than you two. I'll have the better chance of getting out." I explain.

"I'm not leaving you here." Wow, Fang. Change of heart, so sudden.

I turn to Angel. "Angel, get out now. Find the others. I'll deal with Fang."

She nods solemnly. She's about to jump out the window, but before she does, she runs over and gives me a hug. "Don't you dare die, Max."

"Wouldn't dream of it." I smile down at her. "Now get out."

The moment she disappears, I turn back to Fang. "Fang, I need you to leave. Now."

He mumbles something again.

"Fang, you know very well I can't hear you when you mumble like that. Either speak up, or say nothing at all." I cross my arms and walk over to the window, motioning for him to leave while he still could.

He walks over to me, but instead of flying through the window, he grabs my shoulders. "I love you."

He kisses me passionately before pulling away. In an instant, he is gone.

I take a deep breath, and count to thirty, both in shock from Fang's response, and nervous about whether or not I could actually make it out of the forcefield in time. Let alone, make it out of the building.

"Here goes nothing." I mutter to myself, as I press the green button. It lights up, so I know it is working, and I hurl myself through the window. I unfurl my wings and shoot straight up at sonic speed. Upward was probably my best chance.

I can hear explosions, one after the other, getting closer and closer. A mushroom cloud directly below is trailing me at increasing speed. _Come on, Max_, I tell myself, _you have to make it. For the flock. _

I feel a strange pulling sensation, and I am out of the forcefield. I come to a complete stop and honor in the air. Below me, I can only see smoke and fire. I had made it! But had everyone else?

I make a complete circle around the dome of chaos twice, before I finally see the Flock, the Tunnel Guards, and Jeb and jason.

I land and practically everyone is either crying or encased in a look of terror. "MAX!" Angel and Nudge run toward me.

Ella and Dr. Martinez are here, too.

As soon as the two girls stop squashing me, I embrace Fang, and just stand there for a moment, taking it all in. "I whisper in his ear quietly, "I love you, too."

We pull apart, and I can't help but let out a small sob of joy. "We did it, guys. We beat the main headquarters. And we're all alive."

**The End. **

**Dude…its really over…that's kind of depressing. Thanks for your support guys, if you actually bothered reading this uber late finale! I can't believe I wrote that all in like an hour and a half . . . ~Kristen**


End file.
